


Too Early or Too Late

by Crazy7634



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: (That's a lie), Angst, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Can Be Read As Male or Female or Other, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Gender-neutral Reader, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, My First AO3 Post, My First Work in This Fandom, Natasha Romanov Feels, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, None Of That Y/N Shit, Other, Pretending Nothing Bad Ever Happened, Protective Natasha Romanov, Reader is a Cheeky Little Shit, Reader-Insert, Romance, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing, The Author is Emotionally Constipated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-07-05 21:47:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15872370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy7634/pseuds/Crazy7634
Summary: You're either too early or too late.With you, it's most likely going to be the latter rather than the former. There's never an inbetween, much to her dismay.Then again, maybe it's alright to be late to some things......Especially if one of those things is your own death.





	1. Smoke and Steam

**Author's Note:**

> To be honest, I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. If I ever post shit, it's gonna be cuz some fucking idea appeared in my head and won't get out, so I gotta shove it out. xP
> 
> Here ya go, hope ya enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're either too early or too late.
> 
> With you, it's most likely going to be the latter rather than the former. There's never an inbetween, much to her dismay.
> 
> Then again, maybe it's alright to be late to some things...
> 
> ...Especially if one of those things is your own death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be honest, I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. If I ever post shit, it's gonna be cuz some fucking idea appeared in my head and won't get out, so I gotta shove it out. xP
> 
> Here ya go, hope ya enjoy!

 

* * *

 

You calmly walked through the parting doors, your pace slow, as if you were taking a leisurely walk through the park. Hands sitting snuggly in your pockets, your eyes darted around the room, scanning every face present at the meeting as you sheepishly smiled at their amused grins.

Flightless Hawk, Silver Spoon, Goody-Two-Shoes… it seemed as if everyone already got here before you.

Sparing a glance at the clock on the wall, you held back a wince at the glaring numbers declaring your tardiness. You let your eyes hover over to the others in the room once again.

Goggle Bird, Shakespearean, Little Red Riding Hood… huh.

Where was she? Considering you were late to debriefing ~~(again)~~ , you already had a half-assed excuse ready on the tip of your tongue, expecting a comment or a wise-crack of some sort the moment you stepped into the room-

“You’re late, _Agent._ What is it this time, traffic? Or did a dog somehow eat your digital schedule again?”

Right. _Behind_ you.

You bit back a laugh, _‘THERE it is!_ ’

Spinning on the heels of your feet, you span around to face the woman leaning casually against the wall. You waited as the redhead faux-inspected her nails for a moment before her emerald irises drifted up to stare straight into yours, arching an eyebrow silently in question.

You rolled your eyes good-naturedly, the wide smile on your face unwavering.

“Of course, I was late. I ran into an elderly citizen on the way here. I couldn’t just leave them to cross the road alone, my conscience wouldn’t allow it!”

A brief huff of a laugh escaped her lips, “Hah, is that so?”

You could feel your grin growing wider, if that was even possible.

“It _is_ so! What kind of goody-goody agent would I be if I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my precious time towards helping others?”

“I don’t think tardiness is part of being a stellar agent.”

“Neither are sarcasm and snark, yet here we both are.”

From the corner of your eye you could see the others only sighing at your banter, with Clint being the only exception. But from the looks of the smug smirk on his face and the way his eyebrows wiggled knowingly in your peripheral vision, you partly wish he wasn’t. The dude might as well change his alias from Hawkeye to Cupid just because of his nagging alone. Though your smile may have faltered slightly at the sight, your gaze never left hers. The other members of the team only watched as the two of you glared at each other intensely, both of you too stubborn to bow to the other.

If no one knew any better, they would think that the two of you hated each other’s guts.

New recruits always seemed to think so, if the terrified faces that the greenhorns made whenever they first witnessed you two butt heads were any indication. Then again, who could blame them for believing so? What with her always scolding you with exasperated eyes and a deadpan voice, and you always responding with a constant childish pout and rare, heated glares. Anyone who’s worked with you before has seen your sly smile or mischievous smirk enough that they can safely say that either one is usually plastered on your face ninety percent of the time. They’ve also seen her annoyed frown or scowl in place of her professionally impassive face many times, enough to know that either one only appears whenever you’ve done or said something that’s gotten under her nerves. Often, the two of you would be seen butting heads—or rather, would be _heard._ From the occasional shout at the other from one corner of the room to the opposite, to full-on death-metal-loud screaming matches. No one’s ears would be safe in the latter situation, neither from the volume nor from the language. Hence why there are no bring-your-child-to-work days.

So, yeah. If no one knew any better, they would think that the two of you hated each other’s guts.

But, they did.

Or, at the very least, the rest of the Avengers did.

Behind all the exasperation, annoyance and fury were genuine fondness and worry, as hard as the tough-as-nails Black Widow had attempted to hide it. Behind the amusement, childishness and snark, were subtle apologies and looks that silently asked for forgiveness.

The two of you knew better too.

You knew she hid behind an emotionless mask, she knew that you hid behind your playful grins. Nearly every smile she made got you to frown, knowing when they were not genuine. Nearly every joke you gave angered her, knowing that buried beneath the punchline was a hidden jab at yourself. Having lived similar lives and been brought up in similar… _ways_ , the two of you could understand each other in a way that the others only wish they could.

Smoke and steam.

If you ever had to describe the relationship between the two of you, you would say that the two of you were like steam and smoke. Both are gasses, both have enough similarities that they could possibly be mistaken for the other and the creation of one can be said to be identical to the creation of the other, but it doesn’t change the fact that both were made up of different things.

Somewhat similar, yet undeniably different. Just like the two of you.

Cap coughed into a fist, urging you two to turn your attentions towards him. He glanced down at the table in front of him then back at you two, raising his eyebrows.

“Now that we’re all here, how about we get back to the meeting?”

_‘Oh, yeah. Debriefing.’_

You gave a nod, “Yeah, sorry about that. I… well, let’s just save the time we got left and skip the excuses I got ready.”

Nat rolled her eyes and moved to stroll past you, stopping for a moment in front of you to poke you in the collarbone. “I swear, you’d be late for your own funeral.”

Spotting the teasing glance she sent over her shoulder as she brushed past, you let out a chuckle.

“Honestly love, that wouldn’t surprise me one bit.”

 

* * *

 

Turns out, you’d have to attend your own funeral sooner than either of you expected.

Natasha stood in front of your gravestone, Clint standing at her side while the rest of the Avengers waited a couple meters away, occasionally sending worried glances towards the redhead’s way. Said spy stayed silent, too busy staring at the freshly-covered rectangle of dirt at her feet while the details of your last **—** and painfully "successful" **—** mission kept repeating in her mind.

Solo extraction mission…

GSW to the chest…

Manual detonation…

You'd managed to get the undercover agent out of the line of fire, but it seemed that the wound took a toll. You'd dropped to the ground in fatigue and gave the agent the coordinates of the transport point, telling them to leave you, before falling unconscious. It was highly suspected to be due to blood loss. Members of the Avengers **—** your teammates **—** had been sent to either rescue you, or at the very least recover your body. But at the sight of the burning crater that was left behind, the chances of them accomplishing either dropped drastically low.

MIA turned PKIA.

Finished the mission early, but left too late.

The casket that lay six feet below was empty, yet it seemed to make the loss of you even more evident. She didn’t know which would’ve hurt worse, if they managed to recover your body and she’d see you lying motionless… or this, not even able to see your face for one last time.

“Typical. Of course your body's late to your own funeral, Sunshine.”

Clint placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. “C’mon Nat, it’s been hours. How about we go back to the facility, huh?”

She nodded and tilted her head back, a sad smile gracing her face at the sight of the clear skies. “Ironic, how it’s such a beautiful day. Then again, it’d be too cliché for the weather to be shit today of all days.”

The archer sighed, squeezing her shoulder again before beginning to usher her towards their teammates. “You really loved them, didn’t you?”

“…Yeah, I loved them. But love doesn’t stop bullets.”

 

* * *

 

A harsh gasp tore through your throat as your body lurched forward, bones creaking in protest the moment you began to move. You sat on the cream, carpeted floor for a moment, disoriented. Once the nausea began to dissipate and the room slowed its spinning, you dared to stand, scanning your surroundings confusedly.

A TV… whose is it?

A gun… why do you have that?

A copy of FSOG… which was given to you as a joke gift. Wait. How do you know that?

At every item you examined, you began to recall more and more of your life, the migraine currently destroying your skull intensifying as you did so.

Your bed, your favourite pair of shoes, a fake potted plant collecting dust in the corner, a photo- a photo? Of who?

You slowly ambled towards it. With how your legs were currently feeling like jelly, you’re pretty sure you looked like a penguin walking with an egg between its legs. Once you were in front of the picture, you gazed at it with wonder. It was you, with… someone else? Your arms were wrapped around their waist and your chin was resting on their shoulder, you could just feel the smugness oozing out of your grin captured in the image. Gingerly, you lifted the frame from its perch, fingers gently ghosting over the genuine look of happiness you held. You blinked, forgetting that it was truly you in the photo for a moment and quickly shook your head to rid it of the cotton clouding your thoughts. Searching for something to turn your focus towards, your eyes darted to the other individual in the photo. Their head was turned to the side, away from you, focus set on something unseen on the ground. What looked to be a stubborn frown was on their face, but upon closer inspection it seemed more like a childish pout. You squinted, a bark of a laugh releasing without your control at the sight of the light dusting of pink on their cheeks.

This picture, their familiar red hair and emerald eyes… _Nat_.

Natalia Alianovna Romanova, or Natasha Romanoff as she goes by these days.

Everything’s coming back to you now. This place… it’s your apartment! How could you have forgotten that? How could you have forgotten _her_?

You gasped.

Why were you even here in the first place?! The last time you were awake, you were on your way out with the compromised mole when some idiot guard activated the building’s security measure, which was to set off specifically placed explosives expected to blow the structure and everything in it to kingdom come. You’d managed to get your insider out and safe, but before you could get fully clear-

_*Flip*_

You jumped, the sound of a page turning cutting through the silent air. Hurriedly spinning around to face the source, vertigo caused your arms to spasm in the air as you attempted to regain your bearings. Once you had, you didn’t expect to see some black-robed, hooded person sitting on your couch, calmly reading a book as if they weren’t breaking and entering. Minutes of silence pass, and still you didn’t move from your one-sided staring competition. Suddenly, they snapped the book shut, their crimson eyes boring into yours as they lifted their head up to face you.

**“Hello.”**

The deep timbre of the distinctly male voice caught you off-guard, causing you to flinch.

Shaking your shock away, you tilted your head to the side, perplexed.

“Hi…?”

You look at Death, Death looks at you. He turns to his watch, checking the time.

**“Well, you’re here early… you know, I half-expected you to be late to your own death.”**

Death?

Your eyes widened, jaw hanging open. It was at this point that you finally noticed the scythe strapped to his back.

_Shit._

Your hands flew to your hair, clutching the locks tightly as you began to pace frantically, attempting to process the newfound information.

“Nat’s gonna fucking kill me for dying.”

**“That… doesn’t make any sense."**

“Shut it! Besides, if there were anyone who could find a way to kill a dead person, it’d be her.”

**“Then I suppose it’s a good thing you’re not dead.”**

The sudden appearance of his scythe in your path made you freeze in your tracks, right foot half-way through taking another step. “I- what?”

**“You have yet to perish.”**

“Then…” your hands released your hair, falling to hover in front of your face, trembling. “…Then why am I here?”

**“You are here, because you are damn well close to being dead.”**

“But shouldn’t I be?”

**“No. At least, not yet.”** Death sighed, twirling his scythe before attaching it once again to the strap on his back,  **“Do you recall, minutes prior, that I had mentioned you being early?”**

“Yeah, it was the first thing you said after saying ‘Hi’ to me.”

**“When I said early, I meant _early_. As in, VERY early.” ** he floated over to you, ruffling your hair with his skeletal fingers,  **“Your time will come, just as everyone else’s will. But now is not that time. For now, I suggest you work on what you will tell the one you say is supposedly able to kill the dead. I also suggest that you brace yourself.”**

“For what?”

**“Pain.”**

 

* * *

 

_*SMACK*_

Another razor-sharp gasp ripped through your esophagus, leaving you coughing and gulping for air. Your eyes opened to darkness, glaring at an unseen foe hidden in the shadows, face stinging from the impact their hand made with your cheek. You could feel the chains binding your wrists and ankles as well as the aching bruises littering your form. The stale air of your cell wafted up your nostrils, making your nose twitch. Just as you were about to spit out a vitriol-laced quip, your assailant took a step forward. Not enough to see their face, but thanks to the sliver of light slipping through the dungeon door, they came close enough for you to see the HYDRA logo stitched into their clothing.

_‘Now, this… THIS is shit.’_

 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didja hate it? Didja like it?
> 
> Please do leave a comment below!
> 
> (Though I hope you don't strive to break this kid's heart...)
> 
> Who knows, perhaps it will start a flow of words that will fill the emptiness left by my non-existent soul. Cringey angst, yaaaay. Perks of sleep deprivation. xP


	2. A Kindred Spirit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As it turns out, you weren't the only one being kept captive.
> 
> Though who, or rather WHAT they are, both confuses and surprises you.
> 
> At least it seemed as if there was someone here that understood how you felt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELP, I probably failed my Physics exam yesterday by focusing on writing this shit.
> 
> YAY.
> 
> Also, please do tell me if Nat seems a bit OOC. I was unsure about adding that little bit, but I kept it cuz I liked the thought of Reader being the one who broke down her walls, and began to change her.
> 
> Those who have read before Chapter 2 (this chapter) came out, might have noticed that instead of seeing (Chapters: 2/2), it's now saying (Chapters: 2/?) (hopefully). That would be because my mind went rampant and although I only expected this thing to last two chapters, in my attempt to discourage myself from writing more by stating the problems and continuity issues, my mind also counteracted its own thoughts by thinking fixes. So, long story short, I ended up with "Why not?" as an answer and now this story has more than two chapters!
> 
> ...Yay? Or Nay? xD

 

* * *

 

The sound of metal screeching against stone reached your ears, ripping you away from slumber, the only solace you had away from this whole situation. You forced a tired, but nonetheless mocking, smirk to appear on your face, ready to assault them with words once again.

Hey, if you couldn’t beat them up physically, might as well try to disintegrate their self-esteem, right?

Besides, the faces some of these bastards made when they saw your smirk was too laughable to miss. Most of them looked like they were the result of a sexual encounter between Kermit and a three-year-old’s sock puppet needing to take a shit. It was _hilarious_. Though you got more hits for voicing those thoughts, seeing them look even more constipated made it _so_ worth it.

You saw a soldier step foot into your cell, trying to look all big, imposing and emotionless. It might have worked… if you were someone else, and if you hadn’t seen that he looked the most constipated out of all the people that “visited” you here. He tried to get you to call him “Commander”, or “Master” or something “respectful towards his status” once… you just called him “Kevin”. You also had a suspicion that this dude has some sort of bondage kink, he seriously enjoyed coming down here to interrogate way too much, even when in comparison to his comrades.

“Heeey, Kevin! Is it the next day already, buddy? Just go a little easier today, eh? I still haven’t recovered all that fully from yesterday. Though I’m sure you know that, I mean, I’ve been saying that to all of ya since the day I got here!”

You gave him a lazy grin, joy twinkling in your eyes the moment he began to scowl.

“Cease your incessant yapping. We grow tired of your games, and nothing we do seems to break your spirit. Congratulations, your refusal to surrender to us has made us very desperate. We will have to improvise.”

Your grin didn’t falter, but your amusement switched to confusion as you continued the conversation, hoping to gain more insight on the situation. “Well, whatever you people are going to do to me, I’ll just save you all time right now by saying what I’ve been saying the moment your sorry asses dragged me here. I ain’t telling you shit.”

Kevin chuckled, giving a cruel smile. “Oh, we have no need for your information, мудак.”

You didn’t even bother to hide your confusion anymore.

“Then why the hell am I even here, Ублюдок?”

His smile disappeared at the insult, scowl returning with ferocity. Never have you been so thankful that Nat had taught you a few choice words in her language. “You and your friends took the Winter Soldier and turned him into one of you.”

“Actually, it’s more like we retrieved one brainwashed James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes and recovered him to his original self. Well, as close as he can be with what you dicks did to him. Out of our two organizations, if _anyone_ did any taking and turning, that would be your side, not mine.”

Kevin growled and knelt down to stare you straight in the eyes, “Regardless of who did what, your _side_ has been even more of a pain in ours since the moment of your death. I suppose your demise struck them and having to attend your funeral was a catalyst to their fury. A fury which they have chosen to direct towards the ones they believe to have been at fault for the loss of you. Us.”

“D’aww, they held a funeral for me! I wish I hadn’t missed it…”

You smiled, as if most of the words he had spoken went through one ear and right out the other. That made Kevin’s last thread of patience snap, his hands flashing to your neck as he pulled you up by the collar to stand at the same time as him. Not wanting to back down, you matched his glare with your own.

“You won’t be so happy to have not been in attendance soon. The day after your funeral, they came at our bases with such murderous fervour. We thought it couldn’t get any worse, until one day, it did. Their ferocity grew even more intense. Why?”

Suddenly, he let go of your collar, dropping you back onto your knees harshly. An involuntary grunt escaped your lips, the shock of pain travelling up your leg caused by the impact forced you to bite your tongue, lest a groan of agony was also set free.

“…”

Your head whipped up, your stare silently cursing the man in front of you. He must have noticed your anger, his lips morphing into a cold-blooded smirk before falling back to his usual glower.

“Something, I don’t know what, is leading the Avengers to believe you’re alive. They’re looking for you, very thoroughly. If we don’t play our cards right, they’ll find _this_ base—and thus our plans—sooner than expected, which means we will have to distract them. Hence why we are returning you.”

Eyebrows raised, you looked at him as if he was insane. You weren’t quite sure you heard that right. “…You’re going to what now? Either you’re going mad, or I am. If it’s me who’s going mental, then that wouldn’t surprise me. Hell, I thought I already was. Actually, if I already am senile and even _I_ think that what you’re saying is nuts, then that means you’re going _beyond_ insanity. As in, the _insane_ version of _insane._ That’s TWO insanes! Don’t break the laws of insanity, man! That’s crazy!”

Kevin’s eye twitched in annoyance. He ignored you and stayed silent as he unchained your wrists and ankles before pulling you up, handcuffing your hands behind your back and attaching an electrical collar to your neck. It wasn’t until the two of you were stepping outside the cell that he spoke again.

“Oh, don’t you worry about my sanity, and don’t you get your hopes up either. We may be returning you, but you won’t be in the same shape as when we took you. Then again, if we gave you back in the same state as when we found you, you’d die of blood loss before you could even say a word. Oh, and I wouldn’t struggle if I were you. Cameras are everywhere, and I’m not the one in control of that gadget wrapped around your neck.”

He was behind you, hands holding tightly to your wrists as he shoved you to who knows where.

_‘Well, I suppose HE knows where…’_

“What-” you tried to turn your head around to look at him, but a quick shove to the back of your head shot that idea down. You rolled your eyes. Fine, be that way _Kevin_. “What the hell are you blabbering on about now?”

“HYDRA needs a distraction, one long enough and important enough to stop the Avengers’ advances to our bases in their tracks. That, and a position in HYDRA as the organization’s ‘Fist’ has been vacated due to your… _recovery_ , of Barnes. We figure why not kill two birds with one stone?”

_‘… Ah, FUCK me.’_

 

* * *

 

“Tracks found leading away from remnants of explosion… unnaturally-disturbed shrubbery… personal possession found at scene, the area and state of its location leading to body disintegration being unlikely. Damn it, what are we missing?!”

Clint watched his partner mutter to herself from the doorway of one of the facility’s private Avengers meeting rooms, arms crossed with a crease in his brow and a worried frown on his face.

“Nat, you’ve been pouring over the mission reports and those notes for hours now. You need to take a break.”

Natasha was leaning over a wide table, hands flat against its surface and eyes darting between the papers and pictures spread out messily in front of her along with boxes of takeout. Mugs and takeaway cups of coffee, whether empty or half-drunk, were haphazardly placed around the top of the table, a few on the brink of toppling over and spilling on the papers.

“…” Nat silently shook her head in disagreement, lifting a hand to rub her tired eyes before moving to run it through her matted hair. “No, I can’t. We’re close, I know it. We’re missing something, I just have to find out what it is!”

The archer grunted and pushed off of the doorway he was leaning against, fast reflexes catching a cup that was just about to fall on his way to the stubborn redhead. Scanning eyes over the table, he huffed at the mess. Turning to the anxious Widow, he breathed out a sigh at the sight of the other mess in the room. Walking to her side, he placed his hands firmly on her shoulders and jerked them slightly to get her attention. It took a few tries, but on the third wiggle, she finally lifted her gaze and turned her focus towards him.

“Nat, you haven’t slept in nearly a full twenty-four hours. The moment we got back from the last mission, you made a beeline to here. You didn’t even visit your room once, not for a break or to get yourself cleaned up. Don’t even try to deny it, you’ve still got some guy’s blood on your left cheek.”

She blinked, her bleary mind slowly processing his words. She raised her hand, ghosting it over the left side of her face, wincing at the feeling of the newly-noticed, crusted blood. “Huh.”

“Yeah, _‘Huh’_. Look, I know you’re worried. We all are. But even though they’d be thankful that we’d found them as soon as we could, they wouldn’t be happy to know that it was at your own well-being’s expense. Take a break, please, or I swear I’ll have Tony and Bruce tranquilize you with a sleeping dart or something.”

She didn’t reply, instead she plucked a picture off of the table, took in a deep breath and released it through her teeth. Clint glanced over her shoulder to see, wincing when he saw which it was. The picture depicted the end of a trail of blood, one leading away from the bomb site. They knew the trail had been yours. After all, at the end of it was your necklace. A small, black widow charm dangling from a silver chain that Natasha had gotten for you to celebrate your birthday a few years back, you rarely (if ever) took it off. If that wasn’t enough, tests taken had confirmed that the blood indeed came from you, as macabre as it was to say.

Nat shoved her free hand into a pocket, pulling out the very necklace captured in the image. A few beats of silence passed, her stare set on the twinkling, silver spider twirling in the air. After a moment, she let her head fall limp and nodded in defeat.

“Fine-” Clint grinned and began to shove her out of the room, only for her to quickly spin around to face him. “-but only for a little while!”

Hawkeye shook his head, grin remaining plastered onto his visage. “Uh-uh. Unless a little while involves taking a shower, eating actual food, drinking actual water instead of coffee and sleeping for at _least_ eight hours, then no. No ‘for a little while’s for you, Nat!”

“But-”

“No buts except yours getting on your bed to sleep. You can’t fight this, Nat. If you even try to step out of your room before getting some rest, everyone else will be there to shove you back in. Even try to _think_ about it, Wanda will let us know. Try to just do your planning in your room instead or say that you’ve slept even when you haven’t, Vision’s gonna be checking up on you in random bursts. FRIDAY will tell us the truth regardless if the Vision thing doesn’t work.”

“You guys have thought this out, haven’t you?”

“As thoroughly as we could without _completely_ breaking your privacy. Now go on, we’ll have Vision drop food off by your side of the door in a little while.”

By this point in the conversation, Clint had successfully dragged the reclusive Black Widow out of the meeting room and to her room’s door. He stayed to watch until she had used her card to open her door and walked in, only leaving when the door had closed behind her.

Behind the door, Natasha leaned the back of her head against it, listening to Clint’s subtle footsteps growing quieter and quieter. Once she was sure he was gone, she let herself slide down until her back was against the cool metal, knees bent away and feet flat against the carpet. Allowing her tense form to finally relax, she wearily examined her room from her spot on the floor. Everything was in the same place as she’d left it.

Drawers and cabinets were still hanging open, some items hanging out of the openings. Casual clothes were still on the floor from when she first hurriedly changed into her mission outfit. Guns, bullets, taser disks and other weapons and gadgets she had in her arsenal were still scattered around the room.

Everything was still in the same state as she’d left it the day she’d heard of your disappearance. Speaking of which…

Hesitantly, she wrenched her head to face her bed, eyes looking even more tired than before.

The blankets and sheets she’d pulled off were still half slumped against the bed and half pooling on the floor. Pillows she’d thrown were at their spots; one forgotten at a corner of her room, one by the potted plant she’d broken with the throw, and another right beside her left foot. The mirror by her bedside, the one she’d punched that night, was—surprise, surprise—still bloody and broken.

Unsurprisingly, her bed and the area around it were still in the same state as she’d left them the day of…

She took a deep breath.

…of your funeral.

Her gaze dropped down to the pillow closest to her, the one by her foot. Prodding it slightly with a toe, she winced, hazy memories of fury and confusion-laced nights returning to her. There was more than one reason why she preferred to either sleep in that meeting room, or not at all.

_‘Love is for children…’_ Nat scoffed, an empty smile playing on her lips as she shook her head at the familiar words.

Seeing movement at the corner of her eye, Natasha flinched and began to ready herself for a fight before freezing in place, realizing what she was doing. Half-way through the motion of standing up, she noticed it was just Vision, in all his red and caped glory, bringing in her food as Clint promised. An agitated breath left her lips and she flopped back down to sit on the ground. She gave Vision a forced smile and a nod, gratefully accepting the tray of food and the glass of water he gave her, pointedly ignoring the way he surveyed her trashed room. Just as he was about to float away, a thought came to the assassin’s mind.

“Wait!”

“Hm?” Vision stopped to hover mid-air, just before he entered a wall. “Is something the matter, Agent Romanoff?”

“If you’re not busy, could you bring me some pillows and a blanket?”

Vision didn’t have to ask why, he already knew. If the brief glance he sent towards her bed was any indication. He bobbed his head in a nod and promptly disappeared.

She sighed, placing her tray of food down on the carpet beside her, staring ahead at the mess that was her room as she took a sip from her glass of water. One day. One day, she’d clean all this up without the attempt triggering memories of that fateful day to go to the forefront of her mind. One day, she’d replace the blood-stained mirror and one glance at it wouldn’t remind her of the loss of your smile. One day, she’d sleep in her own bed once again, and the worries over who will be taken from her next while she rested would no longer loom over her head and plague her mind with nightmares. Someday.

Maybe one day.

Just… not today.

 

* * *

 

You ignored the squabbling of the scientists rushing around you, preferring to focus on struggling against the metal table they had tied you to. But at every push you made, all you ended up with was the cold feeling of steel against your back. You pulled at the leather straps around your wrists, yet they did not budge. They were secure, not tight enough to prevent blood circulation, but definitely tight enough to stop you from socking one of these assholes in the face. Soon, you couldn’t even move your torso, the larger strap being placed over your stomach and around the table restricting the movement of your upper half. You weren’t having much luck with your bottom half either, what with your legs being kept down by more straps at your waist and ankles.

_‘What the-?!’_

At the feeling of the table being moved, your head swivelled around desperately, looking for an explanation.

_‘Fuck, fuck, fuuuuck…’_

None came, and you could do nothing but watch as you were shifted to a slightly-angled, vertical position. Examining the area, eyes darting to every little movement, you quietly attempt to assess the situation.

Two windows. They could’ve been possible escape routes, but they were fortified with what appeared to be prison bars, so no go.

Three doors. One dead end and two possible exits.

From the looks of the scientists dragging in equipment from the door to your right, you assume it goes to a storage area of some sort. The doors to front and left you could tell led to other areas of the bunker, they were the ones with armed guards standing in position beside them. The security had protective gear on and helmets covering their faces, but despite that you could still feel their eyes tracking your every move.

No go.

Even if you could escape your bindings, they’d have already shot you then and there. An agitated breath left you, your gaze now inspecting the equipment and scientists. There were five of them in total.

_‘Two females, three males. One of the women seems to be the one in charge while the rest are just lackeys. She’s yelling out orders and the other four are just following whatever she says like lost puppies.’_

By now, they’d finished setting up their machines and were focused on collecting all sorts of tools. Your vision darted to the other metal table in the room, the one to your left, watching as they left item after item on it.

Needles…

Vials with questionable liquids…

More needles…

Substances with warning labels on their cases…

And- Oh, well, would ya look at that! Needles with warning labels filled with questionable liquids!

_‘Oh, great. This is going to be FUN.’_

You flinched, hauled out of your thoughts by a deafening roar rumbling in your ears. The guards were yelling, urging the scientists to move away while Kevin appeared with another group of soldiers, carting in an unnaturally massive silverback gorilla through the door to your front. It was going rampant against the bindings that trapped it on a table just like you. Kevin, noticing your stare, walked towards you, dusting his hands off casually as if this was all part of his nine-to-five job. Which it technically was.

“Like him? You better. If not, well… let’s just say if this all goes well, you’ll be spending a lot of time with that big old bastard there, so you might want to try to get along with him. Yeah?”

Before you could reply, one of the scientist puppies came by and shoved a rubber guard in your mouth, forced your teeth bite it and then encased your jaw in a metal muzzle, effectively stopping any insult from being sent his way. Kevin smirked, mockingly patted one of your cheeks twice then quickly turned back to his men, shouting orders. He ushered them out of the door to the left, giving you one last malicious smirk over his shoulder as he calmly strode out of the room.

_‘I’d call you a dick, but that would be neither an insult to you nor do you actually use one.’_ You blinked, caught off-guard by your own thought. _‘MAN I wish I could’ve said that out loud, just to see the stick-up-my-ass look he’d have when he realizes I said it’d be more of an insult to dicks everywhere to call him one- OI!’_

Tearing your eyes away from the door he slunk through, your head snapped to the side to face whoever was fiddling with the collar on your neck. You came face to face with the head scientist, who only raised an eyebrow at your silent fury and let out a huff, smiling as she shook her head like a parent amused by their child. She removed the collar from your neck and pulled some helmet down from above your head. It sat snugly on top of your skull and no matter how hard you shook, it wouldn’t fall off. Most likely because it was being kept in place by a chinstrap. When you managed to make it wiggle, she rolled her eyes and shoved the headwear back in place, roughly tightening the uncomfortable strap. Satisfied, she sauntered away, barking more orders at her lab lackeys.

** “RELEASE ME, YOU INSUFFERABLE PESTS! I WILL GRIND YOUR BONES TO _DUST.”_ **

Hearing an unfamiliar voice’s loud bellow, your eyes darted to the source, astonished to find it was the _gorilla_ talking.

_‘The big guy can talk?!’_

Its table was placed right in front of you, metal was used to hold him down instead of leather. You watched as the scientists put a muzzle around its face, not even bothering with a mouthguard. A helmet, which you assumed looked just like yours, was also placed on its head, a metal chain keeping it from slumping off. You watched him buck and thrash to no avail, just as you had done earlier. After a few moments he caught your stare, angered eyes met yours, widening at the sight of the pure look of understanding you solemnly sent him.

He stopped struggling and just looked at you. Chest heaving from exertion and nostrils dilating with every adrenaline-induced breath, he gave you a heavy nod. One that you grimly reciprocated.

A calm silence fell between you two… until you were both rudely reminded of your current situations by the feeling of electricity being jammed into your skulls. 

All thoughts left both of your minds, focus now gravitating around the excruciating pain you were experiencing. By the time the machine stopped, your eyes were hazy, and your consciousness was fading in and out. You couldn’t piece together what was going on, your brow was furrowed while your head lolled from side to side, looking at the aides frantically scrambling around you.

“Trial One, successful. HYDRA’s new soldier apparatus is functional. Verification of Subject X-01 and X-02’s survival… positive.”

Hearing a muffled voice speak, you flopped your head to the right, puzzled by the sight of the female scientist writing in a clipboard. She looked up, finally spotting your disoriented expression, and smirked. Eyes still on yours, she ordered her helpers.

“Administer serum V1.0, toxicity 5.2%, to Subject X-01. For Subject X-02… give them V1.2, toxicity 5.4%.”

You felt a needle being jabbed into your arm, inserting a burning substance into your bloodstream before leaving as quickly as it had come. You released howl of pain, feeling as if a brutal mixture of lava and lightning was coursing through your veins. Hearing a pained roar coming from someone else, you knew they felt the same.

“Subject survival… positive.” you vaguely felt someone shift your numb arm, “Serum looks to be taking to its new home quite nicely. Alright… again.”

The electricity returned.

Your vision went black.

 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didja hate it? Didja like it?
> 
> Please do feel free to leave a comment below to show me your thoughts!
> 
> (Though I hope you don't strive to break this kid's heart...)
> 
> Again, please do tell me if Nat seems a little OOC, and include what made you think she was!


	3. Winston

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Right, right... RIGHT.
> 
> It's PERFECTLY normal to wake up literally IN your own head, RIGHT?
> 
> If aliens and artificially-intelligent robots are already trying to invade the planet, why CAN'T you be walking in your own mind, talking to a giant gorilla. RIGHT?!
> 
> Yup. Normal as SHIT.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative chapter title: Exposition Central.
> 
> Like. SO MUCH DIALOGUE AND BACKGROUND. 
> 
> But it explains a lot, so I hope you lot will read it.
> 
> I also hope it won't be boring for you guys, though. xD

 

* * *

 

You woke up with a start, flying to your feet, crouching low and readying yourself for a fight. Your chest heaved, greedily gulping down air as if you just finished running like a bat out of hell. Considering where you saw yourself last, you wouldn’t be surprised if you just did. But once the red tint of fury faded from your sight, rational thoughts finally managed to pierce through to your addled brain. Not moving from your defensive position, you surveyed your current environment with a bewildered expression on your face.

You were expecting more white coats, concrete and captivity. Not… _this_.

“Oh, of FUCKING course.”

The sky was a shining, beautiful shade of blue, with fluffy clouds dotting the vast expanse of azure. The ground beneath your feet was a damp mixture of plants, grass and dirt, and the surrounding area was green as far as the eye could see. Tall jungle trees towered over you, long vines wrapping around them tight and hanging low. Hearing the crashing of water, you squinted to see through the gap between two faraway trees, eyes catching what you presume to be the rushing movement of a waterfall.

Uh-Uh. Nope. You were done. You were so _fucking_ done.

You limply fell to your knees before shifting your weight backwards to sit on the cold floor. 

Fantastic.

FAN. FUCKING. TASTIC.

“Where in the hell am I _now_?!”

At this rate, you were eighty-four point five percent certain that you were definitely going to lose what little semblance of sanity you had left. You ran your hands through your hair and finally realized that you could actually _move_. You ripped your hands away from your head, looking at the unmarred state of your wrists incredulously. Last time you checked, they were rubbed raw and red from all the bindings they’d been subjected to. You examined your body, your disbelief growing at the state of your injuries, or rather the lack thereof. Hell, you were even wearing your favourite shirt and a pair of comfortable, brown cargo shorts. Your feet were shoeless, which you already figured. If they were covered, then you wouldn’t have been able to feel the cold temperature of the ground in the first place. But what was most surprising about your clothing was the appearance of your black widow necklace, hanging casually around your neck.

You buried your head in your hands.

_‘Okay, I’m definitely going insane. I lost this thing the same day I lost my freedom!’_

Before you could continue your mental breakdown due to your seemingly questionable perception of reality, an oddly familiar voice managed to push past your rambling thoughts.

** “Unless you believe your own mind to be Hell, then I’m afraid you are mistaken.” **

“What?”

** “Earlier, you inquired in which part of Hell you were in. I am only answering your question.” **

A shadow fell over your hunched form and you could feel someone scrutinizing you. Exhausted, you lethargically lifted your head, tired glare moving to stare down the gorilla standing a few meters away from you. A few beats of silence passed between you, the staring contest ending when you shifted your eyes downward to stare at the jungle floor.

You sighed, muttering under your breath. “I’m talking… to a gorilla. Great. I’m so off my kilter that I’m actually seeing things.”

Heavy stomps were heard clear in the air and you could feel the ground shaking beneath your feet. After one particularly powerful quake and a thunderous smack, your head snapped up when you felt yourself actually get lifted off of the ground by the shake. The enormous silverback was now sitting crossed legged across from you.

** “I assure you, I am no illusion Little One.” **

You buried your head in your hands again, grumbling. “Of _course_ you’re not. ‘Cause why the hell not, right? Aliens are invading Earth; Norse gods are actually near-immortal space beings and you can give someone magical powers using a rock inside a pointy metal stick. So why _can’t_ I be having a conversation with a giant gorilla in my own head?”

Although your voice was muffled, the animal in front of you managed to decipher your words. It chuckled, the noise rumbling loudly in its chest.

** “If I had known this conversation would be this amusing, I would have awoken you from slumber the moment I understood our situation, instead of waiting for you to naturally wake.” **

“And what, pray tell, would this situation be exactly?”

** “One enforced upon us against our will, by the ones who named ‘HYDRA’. _That_ is the kind of situation we are in.” **

At the mention of the Nazi rogue science division, you sat up in attention, your wallowing now far from being at the forefront of your mind. You raised an eyebrow, slowly shifting your legs to move them into the same cross-legged position as the ape’s.

“HYDRA. Just say that, and anyone in the know would understand immediately why whatever shit is happening, _is_ happening. Which reminds me… how can you talk in the first place? HYDRA do that too?”

He grunted, lips curling back into a snarl, showcasing his dangerous and elongated canines. You flinched, nearly jumping at the sudden display of aggression. Forcing the part of your mind screaming ‘DANGER!’ at you to calm, you shakily made your leg move back down from where it shifted to stand. Noticing your reaction, his snarl immediately disappeared and was instead replaced with what seemed to be a face of regret.

** “My apologies for startling you, Little One. But unfortunately, you are right. They are the ones to blame for my current state.” **

His palms were flat against his knees, fingers digging into his fur as he gritted his teeth. You clenched your fists, debating whether to go comfort him or not. A minute later you made up your mind and—probably _against_ your better judgement—hopped your cross-legged form closer to him, placing a hand on his leg reassuringly.

“It’s alright, you don’t have to answer if it’s too painful to remember.”

He sent you a smile, raising his left hand to tussle your hair, gaining him a miffed “Hey!”.

** “Thank you, Little One. But… my story is linked to why you are here, and you deserve an explanation.” **

“You… what?”

He sent you a sad smile, before turning his gaze to the sky.

** “Years ago, I was only a proud silverback gorilla, leading a magnificent troop thirty strong! Everything seemed perfect. My family was healthy, food was in abundance, and with my troop being under my protection, no other gorilla dared to attempt to take over. Everything was… perfect. Until _they_ came.” **

“…”

He turned away from you in shame, tear escaping his eye. You gave his leg a pat, which urged him to turn his gaze towards you. You nodded, giving him an encouraging smile, one he briefly reciprocated before his face fell into a frown.

** “One day, while I watched over my children playing in front of me, I felt unease. I looked around, and sure enough, there were humans watching us a few meters to the north, shrouded by shrubbery. I warned them off, and they disappeared. I thought that would have been that. Humans usually left us well enough alone after their first encounter. But… it wasn’t. Unbeknownst to me, they had planned to visit again. This time, they came while my family and I rested in the night. They…” **

“What is it? What did they do?”

** “I… I hurt them.” **

“Who?”

** “My troop.”  **

“Your _what?_ ” your head tilted to the side, confused. “But gorillas are some of the most protective animals when it comes to their family, especially you silverbacks. Right?”

A hollow smile was his response, and he shook his head, ashamed.

** “I cannot recall much, but I remember awaking furious. Everything was _red_ , not just from my anger, but because of blood. _My family’s blood._ I _hurt_ them, attacked them… ended them. Not even my littlest young was spared.” **

He lifted a fist off of his knee and opened it, staring at his palm sadly. He could still see and feel their blood, as if it had never been washed away.

 ** “Their lives were taken by my own hand. They were so confused, distraught.  ** ** So was I. I could not control my own body nor my mind. Not until the deed had been done. Later, I learnt the cause had been a device they attached to the back of my head, hidden by my fur. But knowledge of the device’s location would have made no difference. By the time I regained my senses, the humans had already shoved me in a cage and shipped me off to this research facility. Here, they experimented on me—or as they called it, ‘made me better, more _evolved_ ’. Increased my size, doubled my strength, and unfortunately enhanced my intellect. I only wish the last of the three had not been a consequence of their tampering. I would have been happier being nothing, but a mindless pawn used for muscle. My improved intelligence… I find to be more of a burden, than an asset. All this ‘upgrade’ has done for me, is make me even more aware of my actions than I already had been. The guilt and regret I carried as a normal animal heightened tenfold.” **

Tension hung heavy in the air. Everything would have been silent if not for the faint crashing of the waterfall concealed by the trees. It took you a minute to process what the larger mammal said, and a few more passed before you broke the temporary lull in the conversation.

“I’m sorry… that is all I can say. I’m so sorry for what they have done to you. I can’t say that I know how you feel, or that I know what you’re going through, because I don’t. By the time I had been used to eliminate others, both young and old, anyone who I had any relation to had already been taken from me. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to say that for long.”

You pushed yourself off of the ground, moving to stand in front of the gorilla whose head hung low. You placed your hands at his temples, urging him to look to you.

“Look. My team, the Avengers… we are not related by blood, and we are more of a ragtag group of arguing weirdos than a superhero team half of the time. I mean, _seriously._ Two of us are technically meant to be nearing their hundreds right about now, one of us used to need a little glowing reactor in their chest just so they could be alive, and another one of us turns into a not-so-jolly green giant if their heart beats too fast. So yeah, saying they’re weird is a bit of an understatement. But, despite how odd they are, they’re the closest thing I’ve got to family. Whatever they’re doing to me, to _us_ , is HYDRA’s way of getting to them. I have an idea as to _why_ , but not as to _how_. You said your story is linked to why I’m here and why we’re in this situation. So, tell me. Why are we here?”

You saw the sorrow in his eyes change to determination. He raised his head out of your grasp and curtly nodded, fists hitting the ground as he stood up onto his two feet. He lifted a hand and what looked to be a shimmering mirror appeared out of nowhere, floating casually in the air. You jumped back, startled, finding yourself staring at your own reflection. Seeing your reaction in the corner of his eye, the gorilla chuckled.

** “Do not fret. It is of no danger to you. Think of it… as a window, one to view my memories through.” **

You stared at him incredulously, “I know with how weird our current circumstances are, this shouldn’t be something that surprises me at this point, but how the FUCK are you doing this?”

** “I mentioned earlier that I awoke in this place long before you had. In the time I spent here, waiting for you to ‘wake’, I realized that this place is my mind. Or rather, _our_ mind.” **

Your expression didn’t get any better, if anything, it got worse. Now you looked at him as if he grew a second head. “Our WHAT?”

He grinned at your reaction.

 **“You heard correct. THIS is our shared conscious,”** stretching his arms out to gesture to your surroundings, his voice grew louder, **“It works as if it is imagination central. Essentially, you can conjure whatever you can conceive here in our mindscape. Whether it is to quite literally walk through a past memory, or simply summon a single banana, it shall appear at your command. However, I digress.”**

Dramatically waving a hand in the air, he made the ‘window’ larger. It no longer showed a reflection of the two of you, however. Now it depicted a video feed of a group of scientists examining notes and equations, stacks and clipboards of paper either in their hands or scattered around the room. They seemed to be comparing different coloured vials and their results, occasionally gesturing to the figure observing them from behind a set of thick bars, whose eyes the two of you were seeing through.

_‘I guess this is one of his memories, then…’_

** “These scientists are the ones to ‘thank’ for the _developments_ to my form. Their only objective had been to better my size, as well as my physical capabilities. They were never meant to alter my mind. THAT had been a ‘happy little accident’, one they never knew of until the day we first saw each other. When I had reached my limit and was unable to restrain my outburst.” **

The memory flashed, switching to the sight of Kevin smirking at your restrained state.

“That bastard…” you grumbled, resisting the urge to spit at Mr. Dickless’ projected face.

Just as you were about to lose the battle against that particular compulsion, the memory flashed again, switching to show two researchers murmuring to each other, the dim lighting making them barely visible in the darkness.

** “It is because they were unaware of my then-newfound intelligence, that they were not mindful of their surroundings and did not have care when they spoke of sensitive information. While my intelligence grew, I listened to them, studied them, absorbing as much information as I could acquire. Hearing bits and pieces of their plans was just a bonus. From there, piecing together what I’d heard, I learnt that what they were planning for me was so much bigger than being just another test subject. Their experiments, their research, was all to accomplish one goal…” **

The image morphed to display a beast that vaguely appeared to be a human. Their eyes were blood-shot red, their hair non-existent and their body… their body was reminiscent to that of Abomination’s, a fact that made a chill crawl up your spine. Your unease only grew when the creature broke out of its bonds and went berserk, tearing through soldiers and scientists alike. The carnage was stopped when Kevin came in and pressed the single red button on the remote in his hand, which led to the monster falling to the tile floor, clutching its neck in pain before falling limp. Dead.

** “…To create the perfect weapon.” **

His hand arced in the air, your gaze staying on the glazed, crimson irises of the executed monstrosity’s horrifying figure, until it completely swirled away to present you with an array of different research files. Simple project names were printed clearly in bold:

“Size”, “Monster”, “Strength”, “Animal” and, most worryingly, “Human”.

** “They wished to take different kinds of successful procedures and combine them all to create their organization’s new ‘Fist’. The information in these files are all categorized underneath the title ‘Project Amalgamate’. The first three files they had were already completed before my capture, their use of which led to the miscreation you had seen in my previous memory. It was a creature I had the _pleasure_ of seeing during the first week of my stay and had been one of their first tries at Amalgamate, the one where they finally realized what their roadblock was. Compatibility. The first three files are substances, easy enough for them to adjust to the required specifications. The final two, however, are not as easy to acquire. Hence our capture. For years they’ve worked to shape me to fit the mould, to come out as their perfect subject. They intended to spend just as much time ‘preparing’ _you_ , but something must have gone wrong for them to have brought their plans into action so soon, for them to have already made us fulfil the purpose they’ve forced upon me and you.”  **

“…Which was?” you asked redundantly, concentration still fixed on the files. You already knew what he was going to say, it was quite obvious what the answer would be.

** “Fusion. My purpose is to fit in as the fourth file, yours is the last. We are the final product of Project Amalgamate. A perfect weapon made for destruction, meant to defeat even Earth’s mightiest heroes.” **

“…”

** “This is all that I was able to gather. Considering where we are now, I have a hunch that they have finally succeeded after all their other attempts, or at the very least succeeded somewhat. As far as I know, having us share a mind—or having one left intact at all—was not part of their plan.” **

“Hm…”

Neither of you said anything. You were still fixated on the files while he was busy observing you. Thoughts were spinning a mile a minute, and he could just see the cogs spinning in your head. Well… your mental physical form’s head.

 ** _‘Does that even make sense?’_** he breathed out a sigh, **_‘At this point, not many things do.’_**

Suddenly, you clapped your hands loudly, startling him out of his reverie.

“Well, this is a lot of shit to take in. Still processing about… Mm… ninety-eight percent of all this? One thing’s for sure, we’ve got our work cut out for us. But before we get started, we have to get one thing straight.”

** “What would that be?” **

“Your name.”

 **“What?”** he tilted his head to the side, confused.

“What do I call you? I can’t just keep calling you ‘him’ or ‘gorilla’ in my head, I need to get a name for ya. Besides, you’ve got yourself calling me ‘Little One’, which I think you’ll continue to do even if I told you my real name. So, what do I call _you_? If you don’t give me a name, I’ll just end up using a random string of nicknames. Trust me when I say you don’t want that. None of my nicknames are made to be nice.”

A rumbling chuckle vibrated in your ears.

** “You would be right Little One, I would continue calling you such even if you told me your name. Though, you need not tell me, for I already know. I apologize for the breach in privacy, but I had accidentally wandered into your memories during my exploration of this area. It seems I can access your half of our mind, just as you can with mine. I hope you can forgive me for such a transgression. As for the name problem, I shall ignore what I have seen and heard in your memories and give you the benefit of the doubt. The closest I have gotten to a proper name is Subject X-01. I believe you will be able to give me a name much better than that, no?” **

He knelt down on one knee, giving you a grin with a fond look in his eyes. You reminded him of his littlest young, so very curious, energetic and mischievous. You mirrored his grin, the first genuine laugh you’ve had in months leaving you.

“You know what? If it was someone else, I’d probably be pissed. But you didn’t mean to do it, so I’ll let you off the _just this once_. Also, just know, when it comes to actual names, I don’t have much creativity,” you took a few seconds for contemplation, then scratched the back of your head sheepishly, “How about we just keep it simple and just call you ‘Winston’, that good? Tony’s got this intern who just keeps making all these references, and one time he talked about this gorilla from some game him and his friend were going crazy about. The big guy was also genetically-engineered, strong as shit and smart as fuck. Kinda reminds me of you, so…”

His eyes softened and became even more fond. He reached forward, large palm ruffling your hair again,  **“It is perfect.”**

“Oi! Stop doing that!” you yelled in indignation, to which the newly-dubbed ‘Winston’ only responded with a growing grin and boisterous laughter.

A second later you were joining him in his elation.

When the two of you had calmed, you held a fist out, an action that had him furrowing his brow in confusion.

** “What is this?” **

“You may have learnt a lot about how to be plotting smart guy from these assholes here, but I knew they never would’ve taught you any of the fun parts of being like us. It’s called a ‘fist bump’, it’s something a few people do with friends or acquaintances. Here, gimme your fist,” Winston followed your instructions, holding out a fist of his own. You beamed, and slowly moved yours forward to gently bump against his, “See? Simple as that.”

At the sight of your delighted expression, his warm smile returned.

** “I think I’ll look forward to working with you, Little One.” **

 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didja hate it? Didja like it?
> 
> Please do leave a comment below!
> 
> (Though I hope you don't strive to break this kid's heart...)
> 
> WELP. I failed that freakin' English exam. YAY. Failing 3/3 of my exams. FUN.
> 
> How ya likin' the story so far? Chapters too long, too short? Let me know your opinions, I'm dyin' here! xD


	4. Let's Go Wild!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You may not be with your teammates right now, but you're all still doing the same things... Essentially.
> 
> They're breaking in. You're breaking out.
> 
> They're breaking minds. You're breaking bones.
> 
> They're breaking FOR information. You're breaking to KEEP information.
> 
> All in all, you're doing the same thing: Making HYDRA wish you lot would just stop breaking things in general.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand I'm at school. The moment this shit-show is posted, it's about twelve o'clock on a Monday, with me wishing that the next thirty minutes of school time left would pass by as soon as possible.
> 
> Seriously though... HELP ME.

* * *

 

_“How did someone like you end up joining SHIELD?”_

_“Same way as you did, Widow. Barton. I got transferred to the ‘Deathstalker’ program, apparently I showed ‘potential’ for it.” You chuckled coldly, “Poor guy thought he was going to find some stealth jet or something, didn’t expect to find a ‘human’ there instead.”_

Natasha sat quietly in her seat, the conversations of the others in the quinjet nothing but a dull hum in her ears. Her stare was fixed on the floor, eyes glazed and mind elsewhere as her fingers fiddled with the silver spider charm of your necklace. Before she knew it, everything around her slowed down to a stop, fading into black. When she raised her head, she was no longer flying towards yet another base. Instead, she found herself watching the past.

The day she met you.

Everything was playing as if it being shown in a movie theatre, and she had a front-row seat. Her emerald irises followed her own figure’s movements, watching as the past version of herself shadowed Clint during her first walk through the Helicarrier. Nat smirked at the sight of her own emotionless mask, reminded of the first time someone made her break it. Which, if she remembered correctly, was in three… two… one-

“Hey, if it ain’t Birdbrain. How you doing, Hawk? Haven’t seen you around here much, heard someone ruffled your feathers!” Clint just rolled his eyes as you jogged up to them, your attention switching to her the moment you were a meter away, the familiar grin on your face growing, “It’s you, ain’t it? The infamous Itsy Bitsy Spider who got him stuck on babysitting duty for a while!”

“…”

Natasha mirrored your grin. She’d said nothing in return, but if one had been paying close attention, they would have noticed the slight twitch of her eye and the quick flash of a frown that appeared for a split-second at the nickname. Unfortunately for her back then, you were.

Your hand blurred when it pointed an accusatory finger in her direction, the size of your grin threatening to split your face into two, “HA! Did you see that? I got her to break, for just a _tiny_ fraction of a second! The bet was that I make her show an emotion just once, which I did, so I fucking WIN. You and Fury gotta pay up, Squawk!”

You proudly held a hand out to Clint, and unashamedly moved your fingers curl back occasionally in a childish ‘gimme’ gesture. Natasha saw her eye twitch once again, which you had also noticed, your head turning to face her once Barton had given you what he’d owed. Your grin never faltered throughout the duration of that ridiculous exchange, not even under the burning fury she’d attempted to intimidate you with silently. That had been the first time your grin and her glare first clashed.

She’d hated you so much back then. If only because after your first meeting, you’d taken it upon yourself to annoy her as much as possible whenever your paths crossed. But as time went past, she began to get used to it. Though, it wasn’t until a particular, messy assignment that she began to grow _fond_ of your antics.

The memory dissipated into nothing, disappearing like dust swept away by the wind.

Natasha watched as colour returned to her surroundings, the distant banging of fired bullets growing louder as the new setting became more visible. It wasn’t long before the darkness fully receded and showed you, shooting over a wall at your assailants, whilst she reloaded her gun. Just as she finished, you ducked back down, clutching your arm and staring at your empty gun.

“FUCK!”

You’d hurriedly moved to reload, and she’d shifted to finish off the last two left. Two quick shots later, they were down. Even though it seemed like there were no more enemies left, she hadn’t let herself relax for even a second.

Not taking her eyes off of the area in front, she asked, “Status?”

“Peachy. Juuuust peachy,” You’d muttered. She hadn’t realized it at the time, but your focus wasn’t on your gun. It had been on the freshly-bleeding hole in your arm. You chuckled hollowly, “Hey, Spidey, any other bastards left to shoot?”

Natasha saw her eyebrows draw together and remembered how she’d been puzzled at the supposedly-unfamiliar sound. She had hesitated for a moment and wondered whether to spare a glance at you or not, before deciding not to submit to that urge. Instead, she replied, “As far as I can tell, no. But can I ask you something?”

There it was again.

An _empty_ laugh.

Natasha felt her lips curl down into frown at the same time as her past self’s did. You took a deep breath, which the Russian now knew had been done to deal with the pain, before breathily muttering, “Other than the one you just did? Yeah, sure. Why not, Red?”

She’d shook her head, a small semblance of a smile appearing briefly at the nickname, until it disappeared as quickly as it had come.

“Cheeky. What I wanted to ask about was the nicknames and the sass. I understand that you do that to everybody, but every time we see each other, it just seems like you’ve made it your mission to annoy me as much as possible ever since the moment we first met. Why is that?”

“Ah, _that_. Well… of course, being Black Widow, I have no doubt that you are aware of who I am. Of where I came from before SHIELD.”

Natasha watched her eyes go ice-cold, she’d known exactly what you were talking about.

“Project ‘Red Scorpion’; sister-operation to the ‘Black Widow’ program.”

“Mm hm… shouldn’t be a problem then, knowing what they’d done to us there. Pretty similar to what they did to you guys. Just… more _venom in bloodstreams_ and such. Anyways! That first moment I saw you was a test set by me.”

Nat chuckled, seeing her own bewildered expression. She’d quickly shaken her head then, hastily replying to cover up the slip-up, “A test? What for?”

“Hah… I thought it was just one question? Eh, whatever. I can’t be bothered to fight ya about that. Too tire- ah, scratch that. Can’t be bothered to count, actually. I did that test because I knew that, with how your programming had been similar to mine, saying you’d seen and experienced some shit would be the understatement of the year. That test, Natalia, was to see if they succeeded in killing you.” You took another deep breath here, “I wanted to see if… hah… _you_ could still be saved. Not ‘Black Widow’, not ‘Natasha Romanoff’, but _you._ Natalia Alianovna Romanova.”

Her grip on her gun had wobbled, “…And?”

“Hmm?”

She had finally turned to you at this point in the conversation, though she still pointed her gun towards the front.

“Can I still be ‘saved’, Scorpion?”

You leaned your head back then, resting it against the wall. You had blearily opened your right eye to look at her, and she recalled wondering when you’d closed them in the first place.

“Well, if you weren’t, I wouldn’t exactly be trying to get your emotions out by annoying the shit outta you, would I?”

Nat grinned at her jaw drop, she’d looked at you as if you didn’t just have two heads, but _three,_ “What kind of backwards logic are you using for you to believe that such an insane approach would work in the first place?!”

“The fact that you, at the very least, didn’t come outta there emotionless. They’re only a bit buried, you still know how to express ‘em. Just a little urging and they come surging back out. Soon enough, you won’t even need any ‘catalysts’. Besides, gimme a break! I didn’t exactly go to a psychologist school you know. At least you aren’t emotionally constipated _like me_.”

You never meant to say those last two words out loud, you admitted so yourself years later.

“…”

It was here that Natasha frowned once again. This was when she’d first seen you as who you were, not who you faked to be. She had been confused as to why you’d been so unaffected by your past. But you weren’t. You just chose to hide it better. It was here that she finally figured out why some things you said, laughs you did and jokes you made seemed… odd.

At times, your words were empty.

During others, your laughs were devoid of emotion.

And—more often than not—your jokes, she then realized, held unseen shards of glass.

Amusing to others, but in reality, cut you inside.

“Ssst-”

The sharp hiss of pain you had released had snapped her out of her gawking, making her force her realization to the back of her mind for the time being.

Right. There was also one other thing that Natasha had realized on this mission.

She watched herself shift you so that you were facing her, gritting her teeth when her past self’s eyes widened at the sight of the bloodied shoulder you’d been hiding the entire time.

It was also here she first realized that you were a little shit when it came to being injured.

“…tasha. NATASHA!”

Her memories burned away, and reality bled back into view. Feeling someone shaking her shoulder, the redhead quickly twisted her head to the left to face them. It was Bucky. Still a bit dazed, she murmured, “Hm? What is it?”

“We’re here.”

That sobered her up immediately, gaze steely and mouth flattening into a thin line. She gave a sharp nod, tucking your necklace safely into her mission suit. As she took the first few steps off of the quinjet, she glared at the thick foliage she knew hid another HYDRA post.

_‘I’ll find you… no matter what it takes.’_

 

* * *

 

Another scream clawed its way out of your chest, your mind unable to focus on anything else other than the pain your body was experiencing. You writhed against your restraints, but they were tightly wound against the experiment table they’d placed you on.

**_ ‘Hey, hey! Bring your attention to me, Little One. Come on, what was it that you were saying about Natalia?’ _ **

You could hear Winston’s voice in the back of your mind, yelling at you. Trying to distract you. Bless the big softie’s soul.

“Can’t… ‘member…  now…”

Winston couldn’t hear your thoughts (which you were thankful for, privacy-wise), but he _could_ hear what you said out loud. The bastards around might look at you weirdly for muttering to yourself, but fuck ‘em. They’re not who you were talking to anyway.

**_ ‘You have to try, Little One. You said something about her anger?’ _ **

“Hah, ‘Talia…”

You can’t recall how long you’ve been here. How long they had been essentially taking you apart, stitching you back together, sticking fuck knows what into your system, and got you to go berserk more than just one time. You can’t recall how long it’s been since they had first taken you out of your cell and had you _partake_ in their _scientific revelations,_ which led to you gaining an ally during this whole fuck up of a situation. How long it had been since you’ve last seen _her_.

If you were honest with yourself, which at this point of “fuck it” you were, you’d go so far to say that your thoughts and memories of her were the only things keeping you sane. Of course, having Winston helped too. But it’s pretty hard to convince yourself that you’re still sane, if the only proof you have that says so is a talking gorilla that lives in your brain.

You were thankful to have him around, but sanity-wise, not so much. Sorry, buddy.

No, _she_ was what was keeping you from losing yourself and falling in tune to the puppetry of these bastards.

Memories of your sparring sessions, the sass and snark fights… the literal fights. You-

Was it just you, or did the pain stop? Right now, you weren’t sure you could even tell if they were doing something or not. You’d still be suffering from pain anyway. Dull thuds and vague murmuring reached your ears. When the ringing in your eardrums diminished, your brain managed to process them as muffled footsteps and a jumbled conversation. Hearing them stop at your left side, you strained to open your eyes. Attempting to pry your eyelids apart felt like trying to lift lead blocks. Nonetheless, you somehow managed to do it, the blurry figure hovering over you now visible.

“Hm… no sarcastic jab or insult? And here I was, actually looking forward to hearing one from you.”

The voice seemed familiar.

_‘Which is it… Bob? No, too amused. Jezebel? Nah, not nearly female enough. It started with a ‘K’. K…ale, Kaaarver, Kevvvvlar… KEVIN! That was it, Kevin!’_

You blinked once, twice, then a third time. At the third blink, your vision finally started to become clear, a familiar condescending smirk coming into view.

You sent him a strained, sleepy smile, “Kevin, ol’ buddy ol’ pal! Sorry it’s taking a while for me to think, agonizing pain kinda slows down your ability to focus your thoughts. It might not seem like it, but I actually put a lot of careful thought into the things I say. Insults don’t just appear like magic, ya know. Then again, from the looks of your face, I apologize for taking so long to come up with something. There’s enough material there for me to use, that I _should_ be able to just spit one in your face right off the bat. Man, I’m so ashamed of myself.”

And just like that, the smirk was gone. He immediately flashed his fist, tensed and ready to presumably hit you, only to be stopped by an exaggerated “ahem”. Both of you looked to the head scientist at your right, the woman who you’d named ‘Jezebel’. Her arms were crossed, her murderous glower silently commanding Kevin to bring his hand back down to his side. An order he hurriedly followed.

“Don’t touch my things.”

You shoved a weak chuckle out of your lungs. “Hah… Look here, sugar-tits. I may not be able to remember much right now, but I definitely remember that if I ever ‘belong’ to any woman, I already got someone in mind and it most certainly ain’t you!”

Jezebel arched an onyx, carefully-plucked eyebrow at your response. “Of course you don’t belong to me. But you don’t belong to this other woman either. From the moment we started testing Project Amalgamate on your body, you’ve belonged to _HYDRA_.”

You chuckled again, louder and a bit more crazed this time. “Heheh… HAHAHAH! keep telling yourself that, bitch. Maybe it’ll help you sleep at night.”

“How about you take your own advice, instead? I sleep like a baby every night I leave this room.”

“Yeah, and I fall asleep by blacking out due to the pain I gotta deal with ‘cause of all you fuckers. Your point?”

It was here that Kevin decided to join in on the conversation, saying, “I thought you said everything was going fine? Nothing wrong both physically _and_ mentally. It doesn’t look like your tests are doing much for preserving the latter.”

“Hey, he speaks again!” you giggled, continuing in a babying voice, “What? Is big, bad, Kevwin feewing negwected?”

Neither the scientist nor HYDRA agent responded, the former rolling her eyes while the latter silently scowled. Jezebel snapped her fingers, getting Kevin’s attention, “They _are_ fine. In case you’ve forgotten, they’ve been like this since the day we dragged them here. Now let’s go; my crew and I are done here for the day, and we still have to send our research over to our place in the Alps. We’ll be able to sic ‘em on their own teammates soon, shouldn’t be long now.”

And with that, you were left lying on the stainless steel ‘bed’, boring holes into the back of their heads with hatred. When the door shut behind them and the lights shut off, you could feel the electricity in your collar begin to buzz and heard the sleeping cameras in the room whirring to life, ready to catch you in case you tried anything. Unfortunately for them, they may be able to see what happens physically, but not mentally.

Closing your eyes, you let yourself be pulled into your mind. You could feel the pain in your body slowly numbing into a dull buzz, and the calming sound of the waterfall’s rushing water was music to your ears. You opened your eyes and found yourself standing in a familiar jungle setting, smirking at the gorilla standing in front of you. You received a brief nod from Winston, before the two of you turned to the whiteboards of maps, plans and information behind him.

** “They’re done?” **

“Mm.”

** “How are you holding up?” **

Humming, you stepped closer to a whiteboard, tugging off a piece of paper magnetically attached to it. Your eyes skimmed over its contents, not exactly registering the words, as you nonchalantly said,

“As well as I can when they’re plotting the demise of the closest people I got to family.”

** “Hmph. So that’s their play, huh? Have you end your own troop against your will before making you do their bidding, just like they did with me?” **

You placed the paper back on the board, stepping back to examine the map of the facility the two of you’ve made using memories. You stared at the square that had “X-00 Containment Block” written in it with marker, then moved your gaze up and up until you reached “Particle Infusion Chamber”.

“That seems to be so…”

** “What worries me is their sharing of their information.” **

“They might be planning on having other facilities create more living weapons through Amalgamate as well.”

At that, your eyes panned to the left, hands plucking off the two pictures showing the equipment you two had seen before being merged. You held them up in front of you, one beside the other, and saw the machine to blame for your amalgamation innocently blending in with the others. The Particle Infusion Chamber.

You’d already seen one before, read about it even, but the one this facility used looked different. It had been altered… tampered… _adjusted._

** “Well, you definitely won’t allow it-” **

“Damn right, I won’t!”

** “-And neither will I. If it is within my power to prevent the past from repeating itself, I will gladly give my life to do so. Our fate is not one that I would wish on even my most heinous rival.” **

“Technically, it’s OUR lives now.”

** “…Would it not be YOUR life? After all, you are now the primary figure in both our mind and body.” **

“My mind and body may be the ‘primary’, but I cannot cross off your existence as if you were nothing, friend.”

** "…Thank you, Little One. Your companionship has been the only light in my life, since the day these foul creatures had me murder my flesh and blood." **

“It’s nothing, ya big ape. Now, tell me, how long have we been here?”

** "It has been roughly three months since they had first merged our bodies, and adding your time in the cells, it has been five months since your supposed death at their hands." **

“…And they still assume that we need a catalyst to change forms, hence the weak as shit collar. Hmph. We’ve been here long enough, don’t you think?”

** "Yes, I believe so. You remember what I have told you about fighting in my body, correct?" **

“Maybe I’ll have a try at steering some other time. Right now, I think I’ll just let you take the reins and fuck shit up. Just make sure that every last bit of research on Project Amalgamate has been destroyed, along with that fusion chamber they got, before you move on to tearing this entire place down.”

** "Very well. I shall, as you have said, ‘fuck shit up’ as much as I can." **

"Let’s go WILD!"

Your body began to convulse, bones cracking and morphing beneath your skin, howls of agony tearing your lungs. Your body began to grow in size, the table beneath you beginning to groan in strain as you grew too large for it to take. As your size increased, silver fur sprouted all over your body, covering your frame one limb at a time. Soon enough, your straps snapped, unable to restrain you any longer.

You shook the remnants off, pushing yourself up onto your feet just as the steel table bent into itself, eyes scanning the room as they began to adjust to the darkness.

Your ear twitched when each camera hummed to face you, lifting a barely-recognizable arm to cover your eyes when red lights began to flash, brightening the room. A high-pitched whining filled the room, hurting your hearing. You crushed the heels of your palms into your ears in an attempt to stop it. When that didn’t work, you lifted the broken examination table you had been laying on and threw it at the source, huffing at its dying wails.

Suddenly, electricity surged from your collar, desperately clawing against your skin in a hopeless endeavour to stop your still-growing body from fully transforming. But it was too late. Large fingers dug into the metal, effortlessly ripping it to pieces with a yank. A dangerous, fanged grin was on your face. One foot in front of the other, stretching your arms back with the remains of the collar still in your hands, you raised your head to face the roof and let out an animalistic roar of pure primal rage.

It was done.

You were no longer in your human form.

In place of the ‘Red Scorpion’, was a gorilla. It stood at 8 feet tall, three-inch long fangs jutting out past its lips and eyes a dangerous molten gold. Its fur, a shining silver, bristled as adrenaline continued to course through its veins.

You smirked in satisfaction, you twisting your neck around and repeatedly clenching your fists, your joints popping from your ministrations. You could feel the power, the _strength_ , surging through your body.

_It was addicting._

Destroying the alarm might have been satisfying, but you wanted _more._

The door to “your room” slid open, fully-geared soldiers rushed in, guns already pointing towards you before they even took a step inside. You glared viciously at the cameras above, knowing exactly who was looking through their connected screens. Feeling a bullet collide against your chest, you tilted your head down, a grunt leaving you as you watched the tiny bit of metal fall uselessly to the floor. Lifting your head, you examined the varying expressions of the operatives before you. They all held a mixture of bewilderment and sheer, unbridled terror.

**“Seriously? Did you lot really expect that to work?”**

You took a step forward, the squad of guards already beginning to scramble away before your foot even touched the ground. Radio crackling echoed in the room, everyone—including you—turned to the one who led the charge.

_ “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! APPREHEND SUBJECT-X00!” _

“B-But, sir! It was made to fight even the _Hulk_ , what the hell are WE supposed to do?!”

_ “SHOOT IT, YOU IDIOTS! THAT’S WHY YOU GOT THOSE DAMN THINGS CALLED GUNS IN YOUR HANDS, ISN’T IT? I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK. EVEN IF ALL YOU END UP BEING IS FODDER, THEN AT THE VERY LEAST WEAKEN IT BEFORE YOU DIE!” _

“But-”

The radio crackle died. The soldiers were now staring at their captain’s silent communicator in disbelief. They were broken out of their stupor by your chuckle, the sound rumbling in your chest.

**“Your boss is an asshole, isn’t he?”**

Shakily, the captain put his hands in the air, dropping his gun. Slowly he fell to his knees, his soldiers following his lead. Stuttering, he pleaded, “P-Please… have mercy…”

You tutted, smirking cruelly. Feeling your presence being pulled to the back of your mind, you spoke with mock regret, **“I’m sorry guys and gals, but… that’s not up to _me_.”**

They watched on in horror as your head began to twitching left and right, eyelids clenched shut while you grimaced in pain, your body giving an occasional flinch. They tensed when your body froze, gorilla head slowly lifting. Your body’s eyes snapped open, revealing the glowing, red-orange rust that replaced your golden irises.

Winston grew a deceptively-kind smile, **“Ladies and gentlemen, that decision would fall unto me, and I’m afraid you’ll be severely disappointed with my response.”**

A silverback’s fury would be the last thing they’d ever see.

 

* * *

 

“…Say again?” Natasha’s hand held a gun to the quivering man’s head, her other held on to his collar, her grip the only thing keeping him on his knees. Seeing that he wasn’t responding, instead trying to desperately catch a glimpse of the weapon, the redhead’s eyes narrowed. She pressed the muzzle harder against his temple, emphasizing each word she uttered with a slight increase in pressure, “What. Did. You. Just. SAY.”

An embarrassing squeak slipped out of his throat, gaining the cowardly HYDRA agent a mixture of snickers, rolling eyes and pitying looks from the observing Avengers. Her patience growing thin, Nat let her finger twitch, making sure the man saw. He did. He visibly blanched and fell apart more than he already had.

Panicking and voice cracking, he blurted out exactly what she wanted to hear, “I-I KNOW WhERe THEY MiGHT BE HOLDING THeM!”

She released his uniform, dropping his body like a sack of potatoes. He fell onto his hands and knees in relief, face scrunched up like he was unsure whether to curl into a fetal position or vomit. His relief was short-lived, as he was reminded of the presence of the Avengers circling him by a fake cough from Tony.

“Hey, hey, don’t celebrate yet White Flag. You said you knew where they might be, but you haven’t actually told us _where_ this place is.” Tony grinned when he saw Nat ready her gun again. In any other circumstance, he’d feel sorry for the guy, but the bastard worked for the assholes that took who he saw as his baby sibling away, “Better cough it up fast, or you’ll probably be coughing up something else in a minute.”

“HYDRA’s Hellissandur Facility! As far as I know, if there’s anyone specifically left alive even after all the shit they’ve done, the only place they could be sent to is there. Just let me go now!”

Noticing his building defiance, Bucky stepped forward, purposefully using his metal arm to grab the man’s chin and wrench his head upwards to face him. The man’s slight fragments of courage were easily wiped away by fear.

“Before I managed to break free, I’d been unfortunately ‘employed’ by your organization for decades. Even after all those years, I’ve never heard of this facility. You said that it’s the ‘only’ place they could be sent to. Why? What’s their focus? Containment?” when the aide only whimpered, Bucky gripped his chin tighter, growling out one word, “ _Talk._ ”

“W-Weapons! They specialize in weapons!”

Steve was the next person to go closer. He pulled the guy up onto his feet and held him off the ground effortlessly with a hand. His grip on his shield tightening, he asked through gritted teeth, “What kind of weapons? What else do they focus in? If it’s only weapons, then why would they need them there in the first place?!”

“I…”

The mousy assistant looked to the floor, Adam’s apple bobbing when he tried to swallow the rock in his throat.

Wanda, having enough of the cowering male’s hesitation, placed a hand on his head to get the answer from his mind herself. A second later, her breath hitched in her throat. She frantically pulled her hand away from his skull, clutching it at the wrist as if she had been burned.

The other five Avengers present, Clint especially, studied her worriedly. Steve dropped the researcher back onto his knees, ignoring the man’s pained groan while he and Bucky turned their attentions to Wanda. The haunted look on her face caused a feeling of dread to crawl up their spines.

Clint moved to comfort her, softly speaking, “Hey, kid, you alright…?”

She held up a hand, stopping him from coming closer. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her hand shakily falling back down to her side. After calming herself, her eyes snapped open, irises glowing an ominous scarlet. Wanda pierced through the assistant with a withering glare, her eyes not leaving his as she slowly made her way towards him, stopping just a meter away. Hands emanating wisps of energy placed themselves mere centimetres from his temples, her silent threat hanging clear in the air.

“ _Tell them,_ ” She snarled, “Tell them what I saw in there, NOW!”

She couldn’t bear telling them herself, the words too horrifying for her to utter.

“HUMAN EXPERIMENTS! They specialize in making living weapons. The Winter Soldier couldn’t have known about this facility because it was made after his defection, after HYDRA’s exposure. I-I can’t remember what the project name was- b-but what I do know is that Hellissandur was originally planned to be just another research facility, though because of the events that led to the fall of SHIELD they changed tactics. Now they only have one goal in mind: to create the Winter Soldier’s perfect replacement, s-some sort of _super weapon_. THAT is why they would have been sent there! Updates from that facility come few and far between, but the latest transmission anyone has received from them is that they’ve had problems with subject compatibility. So if _anyone_ has been left alive for any reason, to be sent to that facility is the only reason that seems plausible at this point in time.”

Everything was silent, save for the heavy breathing from the terrified aide who was rocking himself back and forth on the cold ground. The tension thickened at every second that passed, the information being processed over and over again in the heroes’ heads, their fury burning brighter at each word.

Clint walked up to Wanda, patting her comfortingly on the shoulder, now understanding why she didn’t want to tell them herself.

 _‘Poor kid… I’d ask her to get the coordinates out of this bastard’s head too so that we can finally end this fucking farce, but I don’t want to risk her seeing more fucked up shit,’_ He gave a mental sigh, _‘Plan B it is, then… No more Mr. Nice Barton. Jeez, at least Bruce isn’t here. Now THAT would have been a shit show.’_

Stepping past her, Clint, out of nowhere, kicked the _informative_ man in the side.

“Get up.”

Clutching his hip in pain, the aide peered up at him hesitantly, “W-What?”

In a flash, _Hawkeye_ had an arrow pointed right between the man’s eyes. Coldly, he repeated, “Get. Up.”

The man’s eyes widened, and he forced himself to stand, the tip of the arrow following him, “I’m up, I’M UP!”

“Take us to this base.”

“W-WHAT?!”

“Did I stutter?”

The assistant shook his head negatively, desperately crying, “N-No! If HYDRA ever finds out I led the _Avengers_ to one of our facilities, I’m done for!”

The master assassin pressed the head of the arrow slightly into the assistant’s head, drawing blood.

“Listen here, you little shit. Your organization took someone very dear away from us. Everyone one here, and even the members who aren’t, cared a lot about our Scorpion. Saw them as a beloved sibling, a close friend, or maybe as someone _more_. Even if you were a blind fucker, you could still obviously see that HYDRA’s _acquisition_ of them has made us incredibly pissed off.”

Clint jerked his head, gesturing to the Avengers around them. Whenever the aide’s gaze fell upon them, each Avenger did _something_ that sent not a threat, but a _promise_.

Captain America cracked his knuckles, shield glinting in the fluorescent light.

The Winter Soldier’s left arm tensed, scowl deepening as his fist clenched in anticipation.

Red energy that surrounded Scarlet Witch’s hands fluctuated wildly, while the glow of her eyes intensified.

Repulsors pointed towards his head whined louder, Iron Man’s impassive mask making the act even more unnerving.

And Black Widow… appeared to be the least affected, but in reality, was the most terrifying.

She carelessly fiddled with her gun, seemingly inspecting it calmly… only to suddenly pin him down with a stare, her gun already pointed right at his heart. He got the message clearly. If they hadn’t wanted him alive, he would have been dead before he even realized it.

At the sight of each one’s glower, the aide felt himself shrink smaller and smaller under their hateful scowls. Even with his mask still on, Tony’s stare was still felt.

Clint dug the sharp end of the arrow deeper into his skull; not enough to kill him, but enough to draw a bit more blood.

The intensity of his glare heightening, the archer snarled, “So believe me when I say that HYDRA is the least of your problems. Take us to them. NOW.”

 

* * *

 

You and Winston were tearing the facility apart.

Every bullet shot ricocheted harmlessly off of your body, and every gun that fired found that their wielder was dead the moment they pulled their trigger. None could stop Winston’s furious rampage, not even their tranquilizers slowed him down. No matter the volume of their war cries, their pleadings and their shrieks of agony, neither he nor you would let up.

The sound of his thundering bellow would still be ringing in their ears the moment they drew their final breath, and the sight of his teeth would be the image burned into their minds as they succumbed to the darkness and found themselves in Purgatory.

…And amidst all this chaos, the two of you were having a discussion of the utmost importance.

_“Man, I’ve GOT to get you to see King Kong!”_

** “I look forward to it. This is the first time I have heard of a gorilla 50 feet tall. If he truly existed, I would question what he fed himself and his troop.” **

_“Yeah, I wish he was real. All they did was use ‘Movie Magic’ and shit to make him ‘real’ in the film. Actually, now that I think about it, we haven’t actually tested how giant we can make ourselves become, have we?”_

** “No, we have not. Why do you ask?” **

_“Because I_ swear _these guys were using King Kong as inspiration or something. Or at least_ someone _was. ‘Cause seriously, a giant monstrous gorilla? For something that they can use to control the world, why did they choose THAT out of all things? What ever happened to subtlety?”_

** “Perhaps they chose the first thing that came to mind?” **

_“Maybe… but in the end, all they did was creating a pissed off thing that hates their guts and is currently trying to kill them instead of obeying them.”_

** “Yes… they failed miserably. Actually, speaking of anger, you never managed to finish say what you had wanted to earlier.” **

_“What? When?”_

** “That last ‘check-up’ we had before the start of our rampage. You were regaling me with tales of your exploits, the ones you’d experienced during your quest to anger the one named ‘Natalia’ to the point of no return.” **

_“OH, right. I still can’t remember much of what happened earlier, actually. When did I get up to?”_

** “You were forced to stop just as you were about to say why you enjoyed antagonizing your mate so much.” **

_“M-Mate?! Hang on a minute, she ain’t my mate, Winston!”_

** “But you spoke of her with such fond reverence, I was fairly sure that she was?” **

_“N-NOPE. Not my mate. Not even the one I’m_ courting. _”_

** “Not _yet_?” **

_“I…”_

** “I suppose that is a yes?” **

_“Winston, I don’t like her like that, a’ight? I just liked messing with her ‘cause she got so annoyed all the damn time! It was FUNNY.”_

** “That is all…?” **

_“O-Of course, it is! I liked seeing her so angry because it was_ amusing. _She’d stop looking like a robotic human with a stick up her ass, even for just a moment. Her expressions made me happy, because she’d look so_ animated _. So…_ human _.”_

Winston rolled his eyes as he absentmindedly threw another HYDRA operative into three more.

He could just _feel_ the fond smile you didn’t know you had.

** “You ‘don’t like her like that’ you said… hmph.” **

_“Stop trying to meddle with my non-existent love life, you damnable ape! Just go back to crushing heads, already!”_

** “Understood. I shall continue crushing heads, whilst you continue crushing on this ‘Natalia’.” **

_“You little-!”_

 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didja hate it? Didja like it?
> 
> Please do leave a comment below!
> 
> (Though I hope you don't strive to break this kid's heart...)
> 
> ...Aaaand that's that. I dunno if that's what you people were expecting, and I'm pretty sure things are moving pretty fast, but I kinda didn't want to keep things on the same situation for too long. Usually I write a hell of a lot more than just 3-4k, hence why this chap is actually 6k. I kind of want to try just getting to the point instead, I don't wanna bore you lot.
> 
> Tell me what ya think. Should I keep going at this pace, or should I make the long chapters that I normally write when it comes to writing random shit that comes to mind. xD


	5. Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rage.
> 
> It was all you could feel. It coursed through your veins like barbed adrenaline. 
> 
> Empowering you, yet at the same time making you feel pain like no other.
> 
> To make matters worse, your eyes were hurting and you could see nothing but RED.
> 
> What the hell was going on?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya, guys! Sorry for this update being a bit late. For those who'll know what I mean by saying "Clint is a little shit", you can probably guess why. 
> 
> Long story short, an idea was stuck in my head. Its presence kept preventing me from being able to create Chapter 5.
> 
> BUT, as you can probably tell, I GOT IT OUT! HELL, YEAH!
> 
> CHAPTER 5, LET'S DO THIS!

 

* * *

 

You saw through Winston’s eyes, heard through his ears and could smell through his nose.

You saw the carnage. The blood painting the walls crimson, the bodies crumpling in on themselves as their bones gave way…the final expression to ever grace their faces as they saw their doom looming over their heads.

You could smell… _satisfaction_. The acrid scent of the bunker becoming nothing but smoke and ash was so foul, yet so _satisfying_.

And the screams…

_Oh, their screams…_

They were unending.

The two of you shredded through the entire facility, leaving no rock— _no crevice—_ untouched. Relentless, Winston tore through one HYDRA operative after another. You, the only witness to their demise, watched with eyes cold and apathetic. Perhaps if they had not captured you, you may have felt some form of sympathy for these bastards… but that wasn’t the case, was it?

They took you, used you. Both of you.

_There was no mercy._

You’d lost any form of feeling for them a long while ago. Well, all but hatred, of course. And right now, revenge was the only thought swarming your minds. The bitter taste of rancour was on your tongues, spite oozing through your veins as much as burning, righteous, vitriol-laced adrenaline.

**_ “Where to next?” _ **

Hearing the gorilla’s rumbling tone echoing from your position in your head, you snapped out of your daze, life returning to your eyes. You ripped your gaze away from the screen showing his point of view, turning to face the crude maps the two of you managed to stitch together through mere glimpses of doors and hallways you’d taken, during the times you were hauled from one room to another. Crossing out the hallway Winston had just dealt with, your eyes trailed up and stopped once they spotted the words “Substance Storage”.

“The next path to your left. We’ve seen aides frequenting the set of rooms there, carts of serums and chemicals being wheeled in and out by them. We’ve marked them down as storage areas in our map. Be careful, though. Whatever liquid ‘creations’ they might have there could be extremely volatile, and if any get on you, there is a high probability that it could react badly to what we’ve already got in us.”

 _‘No need to make our already bad situation worse,”_ You sighed, already marking out the set of rooms Winston was crashing his way through to.

**_ “Understood. Then after this?” _ **

“After this…”

Your eyes scanned the entire building schematic you were using, narrowing on the sight of the only area not crossed off.

The Primary Lab.

The room where all of this truly started. Two of you were dragged in, and only one got out. Physically, at least. You two were forced into this mess, and as far as you knew, neither of you could get out.

**_ “Little One, are you still there?” _ **

You must have been silent for a while, his concern was evident in his tone.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

 ** _“…”_** Winston didn’t buy it. His short period of silence made that obvious. Nonetheless, he took your silent request to ‘leave it’, and continued, **_“If you say so. Now, where do we go next?”_**

“Next, we go to where this whole shitshow started, and end it. All of it.”

**_ “At long last…” _ **

You could just _hear_ the grin in his voice. You could feel yourself mimicking him, your own vicious smile crawling on your face as you examined the map of destroyed rooms with glee.

No cameras, no scientist nor soldier… hell, no _rooms_. Nothing. _Nothing_ was left unscathed as the two of you made your way to their main lab. Where every bit of information they had on— _and everyone involved in_ —your case was located.

First, the two of you were making sure that no other creature would end up with a similar fate to yours. Then, you were blowing this entire place up to smithereens. Anything to do with this place will burn, whether it be people or information.

You’d make sure nothing escapes this facility, even if it meant that the two of you were part of that list.

 

* * *

 

Clint’s boots thudded loudly against the quinjet’s floor as he walked towards his gear, equipping his quiver on the way. Stopping in front of a black case, he unclasped its locks and opened it, pulling out his folded bow. He briefly smiled at the sight of the miniature, ‘hang in there’ kitten sticker you’d super-glued to its grip a long time ago, before his slight show of happiness disappeared as quickly as it came.

He shook his bow harshly, its mechanisms unlatching with the movement, leading to it unfolding to its full glory. Brows furrowed, the archer gave his weapon a few test tries. Seemingly satisfied, he lowered it and looked over his shoulder, at the rest of the team suiting up.

Natasha, of course, was already finished. Eyes glazed, she was back to staring off into space, your necklace clenched tightly—yet reverently—in her hand.

At times like this, he felt sympathetic for his best friend. But although he’d want nothing more than to comfort her, he also knew that she needed—no, _wanted_ , space. He’d respect her wishes.

Bucky was sat on a seat across from her, focused on his cybernetic prosthetic. Right hand clutching his metal arm’s bicep, he repeatedly clenched and unclenched his left fist, the arm’s titanium plates shifting as he did so. It’d gotten a bit damaged in their previous battle, the soldier must’ve been testing to see if it was either still battle-worthy or would be nothing but a nuisance.

Cap was about a meter away, tightening the strap of his helmet with his shield already attached to his back. Occasionally, he’d shoot a glance at Bucky, the other man catching his eyes. They’d share a look and a nod, their stares growing grimmer and grimmer at every catch. The first had been a silent question regarding the Winter Soldier’s well-being, the rest… revolved around the severity of the mission.

Shifting his gaze elsewhere, he came upon the youngest member of the impromptu rescue team.

Wanda was occupying herself by manipulating wisps of scarlet energy hovering in the air in front of her, making all kinds of shapes in all sorts of sizes. But despite her best efforts to distract herself and retain her impassive face, the ominous crimson of her eyes betrayed her emotions.

He sighed and turned on his heels to walk towards the cockpit, where the final member of their team was standing, ruffling Wanda’s hair as he walked past. Her eyes losing their furious shine, he only smirked at the pouty glare he received, happy that he’d snapped her out of her trance. For the time being, at least.

Breaking eye contact with the young Maximoff, he watched Tony fiddle with one of his gauntlets, face plate up. His left hand was holding on to his right wrist, the right hand's palm facing the ceiling; its repulsor’s glow fluctuating. At times it’d go dim, at others it’d begin to shine so bright, that worry about having to fix a hole in the quinjet’s roof would cross Hawkeye’s mind.

Stepping to stand beside the billionaire, he asked, “How much farther?”

“Not much.”

“The coward?”

“Sent over to Fury at the Avengers Facility, screaming in the arms of the Iron Legion.”

Everything was silent for a few moments, the only sound in the air being the faint humming of the engines and the on-and-off of Tony’s gauntlet. Staring at the map on the quinjet’s screen, Clint broke the silence, softly muttering, “The others back in Avengers Tower?”

The repulsor’s whining immediately stopped, urging Clint to look to Tony. The genius finally took his eyes off of his suit and met his, the Stark’s frown clear.

“Filled in and on standby. Speaking of other guys, we got lucky on not having to deal with the _Other Guy_. Bruce got close to losing it, but managed to keep Hulk at bay when FRIDAY played a clip of him and them joking around about stretchy pants or something, so no Code Green.”

That was a weight off of all of their backs.

“Good to know there’ll be a building to go home to.”

Clint flinched while Tony looked like he was about to fly straight through the ceiling without remorse. There was only one person who could sneak up on him. The spy moved to see his fellow assassin, rolling his eyes at her smirk.

Tony wasn’t so amused.

He held a hand to his chest, glaring at the redhead indignantly, chest heaving with deep breaths, “Fucking hell, Romanoff! Didn’t I get you that bell collar for your birthday? Where the hell is it? I swear you need to have that thing on at all times, if only to lower my chances of getting a god damn heart attack!”

Natasha gave a brief huff of a laugh, “Hah. Even if I wore that hideous thing, you’d still hear me far too late to do anything.”

“You do realize that _that_  isn’t, in anyway, particularly reassuring?”

“That’s because it wasn’t meant to be,” And just like that, her joking mood vanished. It was replaced by her emotionless ‘mission face’, eyes homing in on the clouds obscuring their view of the outside, “When do we get there?”

“Right, that would be in…” shaking off any remnants of shock and terror with a shiver, Tony shifted to get a better look at the GPS. His eyes widened in surprise, “…now.”

His head snapped up, intending to look through the cockpit windows. When the clouds parted with the wind, his eyes widened even more at the sight he was presented with. Seeing his surprised reaction, the master assassins behind him stepped forward to be at his sides.

Clint gave him a concerned look, “What is it?”

“That.” Natasha answered the question for him, her eyes set on the smouldering base in front of them with Clint following her gaze. From the design, to the material and even through to the purpose, the Hellissandur Facility reminded them of the HYDRA Research Base they’d found Pietro and Wanda in. Perhaps a little too much.

Thick billows of black smoke escaped the crumbling building, explosions occurring in the floors below the surface still shaking the earth above. Screams could be heard from within the facility, and it made them wonder why not a single soul attempted to escape. Or worse, if whatever was causing all this destruction was also preventing them from escaping. Keeping everyone inside, locked into the collapsing building that would surely lead to their doom. Everyone… including you.

Without a second thought, Nat jumped into the pilot’s seat, Clint taking the other one just as fast.

Tony turned to the three who were still sitting in the back and had been watching the trio in the cockpit curiously. They were surprised to see the severity of his scowl.

“We need to move, _NOW_.”

 

* * *

 

The hidden hangar was chaos. Connected to the Primary Lab specifically for situations such as now, it held two armoured planes and two stealth jets, used only for emergency transport of crucial information, facility leaders and those of importance. Hence why agents and scientists alike were currently bustling around like ants on a sugar-high, their boss watching them from the scaffolding to the side.

“We need to move, NOW!” Kevin was yelling, face red from exertion as he directed his lackeys with a frantic arm and a furious finger, Russian occasionally slipping through his English, “Быстро, БЫСТРО! Hurry it up, you useless bastards!”

He glared at the rushing scientists and soldiers in front of him, watching them load the aircraft with the little equipment and information they had remaining. Sweat dripped down the man’s temples, fear hidden behind his façade of fury. His eyes flashed to the pad clutched in one of his hands, its screen connected to the last, functional, security camera in the bunker. He was unable to do anything but watch as Winston set off a fallen agent’s grenade in their serum storage area, destroying years of time and resources within mere seconds. Then, your body's head turned. To face _him_.

At the sight of the fang-filled grin Winston sent the security camera, an involuntary flinch overtook his body, his teeth grinding against each other when the two of you made a show of your body’s morphing eyes. Irises spinning, their colour switched from blazing rust back to luminous gold, a chill crawling up his spine when you pointed right at him through the screen.

You knew he was watching.

Using a thumb, you gestured slicing his throat slowly and painfully before smashing the device to bits. He understood that message clearly.

He was next.

And he didn’t have much time left.

Kevin was broken out of his fear-induced trance when he felt a hand touch his shoulder. Out of instinct, he grabbed the offender’s arm and quickly subdued them, their arm now behind their back and their face flat against the floor.

“S-Sir!”

Kevin blinked, his mind slowly processing that it wasn’t you who attempting to hurt him, but just a simple aide trying to get his attention. Spotting the stack of papers their free arm was clinging to like a lifeline, he spoke lowly, “Is that what I think it is?”

They were confused for a moment, before realizing he was talking about the documents they were holding flush against their chest, “Ah, yes! It’s all the information we have on Project Amalgamate, just as you requested.”

“And the briefcase?”

“That would be on the floor at your three o’clock, sir. The vials are already in there. I managed to reach the room minutes before X-00 reached it.”

His eyes darted to the right and sure enough, there it was. Kevin let out a grunt and released the aide, ignoring their relieved sigh. Snatching the case off of the ground by its handle, he immediately opened it, nodding at the sight of the serums within before holding a hand out to the assistant.

They looked at the opened case and their employer’s outstretched limb unsurely, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to warn you, Boss. This particular device is still a work-in-progress, it’s a prototype.”

“So I’ve been told, and I don’t care.”

“I highly recommend you give this a second thought. Although it _can_ resist high amounts of damage as expected, its security measures are what the Hellissandur Innovation Team have been struggling with. If you close it, there’s a high chance you won’t be able to open it again.”

Head snapping to the aide, Kevin’s already thinning patience ran out, eyes teeming with animosity.

“I. Am. _Aware._ And as I have already iterated, I do _not_ care. Either give me those papers, or I’ll pry them off of your cold, dead hands.”

The assistant’s face drained of colour and they hurriedly slapped the papers into Kevin’s hand, scurrying as far away from the man as they could. He paid them no mind and sifted through the files hurriedly, placing them in the case when he was satisfied before securely locking the container. In theory, nothing short of a nuke would blow the briefcase wide open, and that was exactly what he wanted.

Either the project was HYDRA’s alone, or these papers would never see the light of day again.

“That wasn’t very nice.”

A grimace appeared on his face the moment the voice reached his ears, teeth biting back a groan. He hated this woman, nearly as much as he hated _you_. His head lolled to the side, eyes peering over his shoulder at the head scientist sauntering towards him. Her heels were clicking against the metal floor of the scaffolding and a mocking smirk was on her face.

“Hmph.”

“Replying with just a grunt isn’t very nice, either, you know?” Jezebel stopped at his side, a hand on a jutting hip as she faked a pout, “You really should be nicer to the members of your staff, especially if the one you’re talking to is your wife.”

Kevin rolled his eyes in response, thumb subtly fiddling with his wedding ring at her reminder, “What do you want, woman? Have you sent the information over to the Matterhorn Facility like I told you to, or have you just been standing there twiddling your damn thumbs the entire time?”

The scientist huffed, frowning at her husband.

“Yes, I’ve sent them over like you _asked._ Now tell me, why have you got some of the physical versions of our research?” her eyes lingered on the case in Kevin’s hands, curious, “We’ve already had the digital versions copied and sent. This seems more than just a bit redundant.”

“Even with the information being sent over to Matterhorn, the loss of Hellissandur has already cost us enough time and effort. I’m only trying to shorten the amount we’ll have to waste over in the Alps. At least with these at the ready, we won’t have to make everything fully from scratch like we had to here-”

“Boss!”

Their conversation was interrupted by one of the jet pilots jogging up to them, the three sharing a salute.

“Are we ready to go?”

“Yes, sir. Everything we could salvage and everyone else who we can spare to save are in the planes and jets. They’re all waiting for your orders.”

“Good. Let’s go-!?”

Screams echoed throughout the area, a thunderous set of booms echoing painfully in their eardrums, forcing them to grind their hands against their ears in an effort to mute the sound. Kevin pulled his wife to his chest with an arm, lifting the other to protect his eyes from the dust and the scattering grit in the air. He tried to squint his eyes to see what was going on, but the wind that had been kicked up made him close them. Once the gust had passed and the dust somewhat settled, Kevin’s eyes snapped open when the scent of smoke wafted up his nose and the screeching of the hangar’s alarms pierced through the ringing in his ears. What he saw made him wish he never opened them at all.

The two planes carrying the bulk of their remaining equipment and personnel were nothing but piles of smoking, metal scraps. And of course, in the middle of all the blazing wreckage, there you were in all your silver-furred glory. You stood there on the ground below, fanged grin still on your face and a Particle Infusion Chamber in your hands, the fire nothing but a tickle to your feet.

His eyes widened in fear, strings of curses releasing under his breath when you began to rear an arm back, readying the machine, “Oh, no…”

 **“Oi, Bastard! Nintendo called…”** with a mighty heave, you threw it straight at their heads, **“…That maniac Bill from** _ **Pokémon**_ **wants their** _ **DNA machine back!”**_

Kevin instantly dropped down against the scaffolding’s stage, dragging his disoriented wife with him, luckily dodging the contraption just as it whizzed past their heads. He clenched his eyes shut, hearing the chamber crashing against the reinforced wall behind him as well as the crunching of bones. It seemed that the pilot wasn’t so lucky. Cracking open an eyelid, he took a peek behind him, seeing the wall beginning to collapse and the chamber sliding down to fall all on their heads.

“Shit!” a hand on her back, he shoved Jezebel towards the direction of the staircase down.

“Wait- hang on, I can’t see!”

She’d closed her eyes too late earlier, soot and grime still irritating her eyes too much for her to open them.

Her protests going through one ear and out the other, Kevin didn’t relent on his pushing, “I know you can’t, woman! Why do you think I’m moving your ass outta the way for you?! If you _could_ actually see, you wouldn’t be saying anything about staying put. Now hurry up!”

But the moment they reached the bottom of the stairs, Kevin knew they were out of luck. You were already there, waiting. Arms crossed over your chest, grin nowhere to be found. Gritting his teeth, he shifted so that his wife was behind him, hands at her elbows as he shielded her.

“…Love? Is everything alright?”

Kevin only tightened his grip on her arms, hushing her. Her eyes, finally free of particles, opened and subsequently widened once they fell upon you. Something was wrong. Your eyes…

 **“Well, well, well… fancy seeing you here, Kevin,”** You tilted your head to the right, making eye contact with Jezebel and noticing the ring on Kevin’s left ring finger, **“Hm. ‘Love’, you said, Jezebel. The two of you wouldn’t happen to be married, would you?”**

“I-”

“We-”

 **“Doesn’t matter,”** Your head buzzing and feeling faint, you cut them off with a malicious smile on your face, **“Both of you will still end up dead at my feet.”**

Rage.

Pure, unbridled rage was all you could feel.

_Your left hand lifted Kevin up by the neck, shoving him against the metal scaffolding. Your right held on to Jezebel by her collar, ensuring she would not escape._

_Funny, you couldn’t hear Winston anymore… now that you think about it, you haven’t been able to hear him for a while now. And when did your eyes start hurting so much?_

Where it came from? You didn’t know. Perhaps from the months of captivity? The hours upon hours of torture? Or maybe even from the experiments that led you to having the form you were using right now?

_You pushed until you felt his throat bob in the palm of your left hand… and you pushed some more. You didn’t even notice Jezebel desperately clawing at your right wrist. You were busy blinking, the searing pain in your irises much more agonizing that it had been before. Back when you’d watched them scramble down the scaffolding’s stairs._

_Your vision was fading in and out, darkness taking over your sight for longer and longer after every instance. Your head was pounding, and oddly enough, you felt out of place._

_Why were you here?_

Whatever evoked it, has made a primal sort of ferocious wrath course through you like wildfire. It was a flame that would not heed any apologies. One that would not be quenched neither by petty promises nor feeble words.

_His face was changing colour, morphing into an unhealthy shade of purple. His breaths were becoming shallower at every second that passed. His wife’s screams were now deafening, yet to you, they remained unheard._

_Who is the man against the pillar? Why is there a woman trying to screech at you, when you could hear nothing but the ringing in your ears?_

_…Where were you?_

Your fury was an inferno that would not be burnt out so easily.

Who _were you?_

_The man in your hand was shaking with fear, his terrified irises locked on to yours as he struggled to free himself from your grip._

“R-Red… e-eyes…”

 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didja hate it? Didja like it?
> 
> Please do leave a comment below!
> 
> (Though I hope you don't strive to break this kid's heart...)
> 
> So, what the hell is going on with ya, dear reader? Why you terrorizin' Kevin like that? Why ya being so murderous instead of cheeky? 
> 
> Is that really you?
> 
> xP


	6. What ARE You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A hit, and a miss.
> 
> Why can't things ever be simple and easy?
> 
> Would definitely make your life a lot less hard.
> 
> But, hey! Though they might'a missed, at least you got your hit in, right?
> 
> ...Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya, guys and gals! Guess what? I'M NOT DEAD! :D
> 
> (Surprisingly)
> 
> So... yeah, finally updated after a SHIT of a long time. Sorry it took so long, mate. I'm kinda busy with end-of-year exams.
> 
> (Which I'm most likely going to fail...)
> 
> (Yaaaaay!)
> 
> Anyways, I hope y'all enjoy this. I promise, nothing hair-tearing will happen...
> 
> Maybe. 
> 
> (¬‿¬)

 

* * *

 

Crashing right through the base’s front door, Cap, Bucky and Wanda were the first to charge into the hideout. Sprinting through its foyer, pointedly ignoring the way the ground shook beneath their feet, they promptly screeched to a halt once they reached what was left of the building’s central area. Bucky’s eyes hardened, Steve’s hand gripped his shield tighter and Wanda’s hands flew up to her lips in a gasp.

Modern interior, a circular receptionist desk at the middle, and what seemed to have been offices visible through glass walls and wooden doors. If it weren’t damaged, the room could have been passed off as just other ordinary building’s reception area.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all that ordinary.

Walls were crumbling in on themselves, the enormous holes within them dropping their structural integrity down to nil. Most of the rooms connected and visible were swathed with a sea of flames, those that weren’t had floors littered with corpses, multiple weapons and papers strewn about and mixing in with the deceased. Red lights placed high on the corners of the room were flashing, dying speakers occasionally releasing broken, ear-piercing shrieks.

Forcing themselves out of their stupor, the three shared a glance and a nod before moving to examine the situation as well as they could.

Stepping over the bodies of the fallen, Bucky made his way to the destroyed walls of the building, hands ghosting over the crumbling edges left after something presumably crashed _through_. Looking past the rugged remnants, he saw that a similar hole was in the next wall over… and the next, and the next. The hallways and the other rooms he could see from his position were in no better shape than the one he was stood in.

Eyes incredulous, he slowly lifted a hand up to remove his mask, examining the destruction before him, “What the fuck…”

Steve went to a woman slumped against the north-west wall, laying near one of the few offices not ablaze. He knelt down and placed two fingers on the pulse point at her neck. Nothing. Crumpled papers were in her hands, singed at the edges and caught in a literal death grip. Gently prying her fingers open, he pulled the papers from her hands. She’d been copying information. Reports on serum versions, something about “Amalgamate” completion… and you. Of your “progress”. Steve gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to scrunch the papers in his hands and throw them into the fires. No, he couldn’t do that.

They needed all the information they could get.

Spotting the flashing screens of the surprisingly still-operational desk computers, Wanda waded her way towards them, trying not to let her eyes fall to the people at her feet. Once she got to the center of the circular desk, she froze at the sight of the woman slumped over in her chair, temples coated in blood. Using her powers, she shifted the unknown female and her seat away before moving to take her spot. But just as Wanda took a second step, the woman lurched forward, gasping to life. Wanda quickly spun around in surprise, turning just in time to see the lady fall off of her seat with a thud. The noise caught Bucky and Steve’s attentions. They turned to look towards the youngest of their group of three and saw Wanda staring at something at her feet with a horrified look on her face.

Steve was on his feet within a second, hurrying to Wanda with Bucky right behind him, “Wanda, what’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer. Her eyes were set on the woman’s terrified irises, ears only able to hear her weak warnings.

“G-Get out of here… t-the animal… it took over the h-human. It’s out of control. You have to get out of here.”

By that point, Bucky and Steve were right at the desk and they both heard the words she’d uttered. Bucky launched himself over and pulled the woman’s hands off of the frozen Maximoff’s legs.

“Hey, hey! Focus. Don’t close your eyes on us here. Tell us what’s going on.”

“T-Took over… it took over. The h-human in them is gone…” Bucky shifted her head so that she’d face him, but the female only repeated the words she’d already spoken, voice getting weaker at every second, “Took over… they’re gone… to-took… o-ver…”

In a few moments, her body went fully slack and her eyes became vacant. With a sigh, he placed her down gently on the tiled floor. He turned to Steve, only to see him staring worriedly at Wanda. It was then that Bucky noticed the red energy leaving the deceased woman’s head, receding back into Wanda’s hands.

Steve reached over the counter, laying a hand on her shoulder, “What’s is it? What did you see this time?”

Her hands clenched tightly into fists, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, “That woman… she saw.”

The super soldiers shared a look, Steve softly muttering, “Saw what?”

“The cameras,” Wanda turned to one of the broken computer screens on the desk with a frown, “She was one of the few looking over the feed for one of the experiments’ cells. At first, it was just black. The lights were off, they were done with that subject for the day. She looked away for a minute, then… the alarms started screeching. She turned back to her screen and saw the red lights in the room flashing. She saw the metal bed in the room broken in on itself, crushed like it was a tin can. It was there for a second, before she saw the table blur past the camera and destroy the alarm a meter away. Then… she saw _it_. The thing looked like a gorilla, but it walked like a human. Seemed to be just as smart as one, too.”

“…”

“…”

Wanda tore her gaze away from the screen and stared at Steve right in the eyes, “It _grinned_ at the camera. It _knew_ the facility had people watching it. When soldiers came into its room, it spoke to them; before completely tearing through them. The thing, it’s… strong. Strong and _furious_. It’s what caused all this mess. It’s what’s wanting to burn this place, and everything in it, into the ground.”

Silence hung heavy in the air, the tension surrounding them thickening. Something was running around killing everyone and intending to bury this bunker into the ground.

They needed to find you. Fast.

Who knows if the thing was close to reaching you—or worse, already had.

The three nodded as they came to a silent accord, just in time as Tony’s voice was heard clear through their comms.

_“BARNES, MAXIMOFF, ROGERS. REPORT?”_

Without another thought, Steve gestured for the other two to follow him, intending to go deeper into the bunker. With that experiment on the loose, they weren’t splitting up anytime soon. It had already shown to be both powerful and dangerous, they weren’t risking anyone being caught unawares.

Bucky was the one to speak first, “Needless to say, we don’t have much time Stark. Something’s been crashing through the walls to get from one place to another, so the building’s on the brink of collapse. A lot of things up here are definitely still blazing, though there _are_ pieces of tech currently operational. It’s possible that they could have some useful information in them. Though, if you want to grab that info, you’d better do it quick. We briefly heard some sounds of impact or detonation on our way in; all of them sounded like they came from down below. We’re moving deeper into the building. If you wanna come with, just know the building could collapse on our heads at any second, and that we’ve got a monkey running around and killing everything.”

_“WAIT. A WHAT?!”_

Steve was the one to reply, the blonde’s gaze steely.

“Tony, we’ve got an unknown hostile here. Big, strong and dangerous. Seems to be one of the facility’s experiments. It managed to escape and has been running around for who knows how long,” Steve glanced around his surroundings once more, quickly skimming over the amount of people he had passed, “It’s killed what looks to be a couple dozen people, mostly soldiers. Considering most died in cells, we can assume they were sent in groups to apprehend it, but it’s eliminated any of the personnel it’s come across. Soldier or not.”

_“GOT A DESCRIPTION ON THIS THING? I DON’T WANT TO HAVE A BANANA SHOVED UP MY ASS JUST BECAUSE I THOUGHT ALL I SAW WAS SOME CUTE LITTLE MONKEY.”_

“You know, there was no need for that visual,” Wanda sighed.

_“WHY NOT? IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL STATEMENT! MAN, SCORPION BETTER BE HERE. AT LEAST THEY WOULD HAVE APPRECIATED MY COMMENT.”_

_“IF THEY WERE HERE, SCORPION WOULD’VE BEEN THE ONE TO_ MAKE _THAT COMMENT, STARK,”_ Clint’s voice was what echoed through their ears this time, his words making a chorus of chuckles leave the other five Avengers, small smiles appearing on a few of their faces.

_“THAT’S TRUE. CAN’T—AND WON’T—DENY THAT, FEATHERS.”_

Hearing snickers nearby, Wanda tilted her head slightly to the side. She saw Bucky laughing and Steve rubbing his eyes in exasperation despite the fond smile on his face. She shot the blonde a sympathetic look; she had no doubt that Rogers could already feel a migraine incoming.

Switching her focus back to the hallway they were running through, she spoke again, flashes of the beast reappearing in her mind, “All joking aside, as the Captain said, we’re dealing with one of the facility’s experiments. Whether it’s a _successful_ experiment or not, remains uncertain. There _are_ certain details that tip the scales closer to the former option, though. It walks and talks like a human, for a start. It’s tall, taller than the average person. Probably about… seven foot at the least, tilting closer to eight. It bears the appearance of a gorilla, and is definitely much stronger and smarter than the usual one.”

_“GOT ANYTHING ON KONG’S COLOUR?”_

“No,” the sight of the ape grinning at the soldiers as they begged for mercy resurfaced to the forefront of Wanda’s mind. She remembers the woman seeing its eyes change, though she was unsure of such a statement’s validity, as the woman could only take a glimpse of its irises _seemingly_ changing shade. The only light in that room had been the flashing red of the alarms, after all, “No colour. Sorry, Stark.”

_“ALRIGHT. SO… WE GOT NO IDEA EXACTLY WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, BUT THE MONKEY IS BIG, SMART AND STRONG. GREAT. SOUNDS LIKE FUN.”_

Steve pressed a finger to his ear, skidding around a corner in tandem with the other two Avengers at his sides, “Stark, listen. If encountered, treat it with extreme caution. This _monkey_ has shown itself to be aggressive and highly volatile. Do. Not. Seek. Only engage when absolutely necessary. We don’t know what HYDRA did to this thing, so we can’t be too careful when dealing with it.”

_“YEAH, YEAH. I GOT IT, CAPSICLE.”_

Patting Steve on the shoulder, Bucky let out a laugh, “Where _are_ you three? C’mon in already, the fire’s fine.”

 _“ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT,”_ it was Nat. They could hear the amusement in her voice, _“WANDA, JUST MAKE SURE THE TWO GENTLEMEN DON’T BREAK A HIP BEFORE WE GET THERE.”_

“On it.”

 

* * *

 

Your lips stretched into a malicious, fanged grin at the light leaving Kevin’s eyes. The feel of his desperate gasps for breath under your palms, the look of his terrified visage… the sound of his annoyance of a wife’s screams only made the adrenaline surge all the more faster. At every heavy thump of your heart, every blood-pumping breath, your eyes grew even more red; your stare more animalistic.

Just as he was on the brink of unconsciousness, your hand loosened its grip on his throat. Instantly, he began to gulp down as much air as he could, coughing when he took in too much.

Your eyes watched him, and your body waited. Waited until he could breathe again. Until relief and hope began to shine once more in his eyes. Then, and only _then_ , did your hand tighten its grip once more. A grin finding its way to your face at his immediate loss of faith.

Your hand pulled him towards your body before slamming him back against the wall, winding him as your palm dug itself into his throat. Jezebel’s screams grew louder and shriller. No matter what pleads she uttered, what deals she struck, her words meant nothing to your ears. Until…

“Why are you doing this? You’re free now, isn’t that enough?!”

Her words wiped all amusement off of your face. Your throat released a snarl, the sound grating into the two’s ears and making them stop any sort of movement. Your arm chucked Kevin to the floor, a foot immediately coming down on his chest to hold him down before he could even think of escaping. Your right hand lifted her higher off the ground, up until she was at eye-level with you. At the malice in your stare, her breath hitched and her attempts to pull her collar free of your grip became more desperate, legs frantically kicking at nothing but air. Kevin, on the other hand, was trying his hardest to push your foot off of him. An ant would have had more luck in a quarrel with a boot.

**“Enough…?”**

They tensed. The voice that left your body didn’t sound like you, nor did it sound like the gorilla within you. It was gruff. As deep as Winston’s, but more… vicious, bitter. It made a chill crawl up their spines.

**“That had to be the dumbest thing I’d ever heard you say. Enough? ENOUGH?! After all that you have done to me, _nothing_ I do will ever be _enough_. You cut me open, you tore me apart, only stitching me back together when it suited your needs best. Your needs for a _weapon_. You messed with my body, but you never gave much thought of the affect it’d have on my mind, did you?”**

“We tried to make you _better_.”

Your right arm lifted her higher, grin returning full-force, **“Well, I hope you’re happy. Take a good look. THIS, is your creation. Your undoing was made by your own hands. Aren’t you proud of yourself?”**

“A-All we did was make you better,” she gave another feeble tug at your wrist, “You’re a monster. We never made you into one, that was all _you_!”

Your arm pulled her back down, the foot keeping Kevin down pushing at his ribs harder, causing him to release a howl of pain. His head smacked against the hangar floor, matted blonde hair spreading out on the concrete, “Rosa, watch your tongue! Their eyes, _their eyes_! This is neither that Avenger nor the gorilla!”

Your foot ground against his chest, making him groan. Jezebel’s head snapped down to look at her husband, fear and concern apparent, “Luka!”

**“Let’s get one thing straight here, woman.”**

A resounding crack was heard. You’d broken one of his ribs. Her head span around to face you, ready to yell, only for the furious defiance to dwindle into nothing but fear. Kevin’s words rang through her mind as your body pulled her closer to your face, her brown eyes unable to leave your scarlet irises, even as strands of her onyx hair began to obscure her vision.

 **“I’ve always known that I was a monster. You’re not the first person to use me as a guinea pig, and at this point I’m not even sure if you’ll be the last. But one thing I _am_ sure of, is that I stopped being a human a long time ago. You didn’t make me _better_ …” **your grin stretched wider when you felt her tremble in your grasp, **“…All you did was make me worse.”**

“W-What _are_ you?”

Your throat released a deep, menacing chuckle, **“Haven’t you caught on by now? I’m- huh?”**

All action seemed to stop as beeping started to ring through the hangar. It was an alarm, but sounded more like it came from a phone, rather than an actual speaker. Your head twisted around, looking for the source of the noise. Then, you spotted it. A tablet, lying only a few meters away from you. Its screen was cracked, but other than that it seemed to work perfectly.

Two words. It showed only two words.

It showcased the first twice, then the other another two times, flashing red thrice before repeating the cycle all over again.

**“Warning… Avengers?”**

_An uncomfortable pressure settled itself between your brain and your skull._

A crackling, but nonetheless working, feed from one of the cameras up on the surface sputtered to life on the screen. It showed Captain America, Scarlet Witch and the Winter Soldier entering the facility for a few moments before blurring into static.

_The pressure began to move outwards, making your head feel as if it was about to burst._

_Your irises burned._

A few moments passed, and the screen showed the Avengers once more. A different group of three this time. Iron Man, Hawkeye and… Natalia?

Images of the redhead flickered in your hazy mind. The small, true smiles she’d sometimes give when you’d made her laugh. Her sighing when you’ve exasperated her. The furrow of her brows and concerned frown when you’d made her worry. Made her worry…

 _“Why are you so prone to harm? I swear, seeing you bleeding out on the floor every time I turn on the light is going to be the death of me some day. As well as_ yours _.”_

_“Hah… I wouldn’t be surprised.”_

Your hand immediately released Jezebel, feet hurriedly moving your body away from the device. Jezebel pulled Kevin up and quickly headed for one of the jets. The two shot frightened glances at you over their shoulders, half-expecting you to suddenly attack them as they made their escape. You would have, if you were not busy with your own problems.

You fell to your knees, hands clutching your head in pain, a grimace on your face as you released a pained roar to the sky. Your memories, thoughts and emotions came back to your mind all at once, as if the dam preventing them from returning had disintegrated into nothing. It felt as if your mind was going through a blender. Your hands smacked palms-down against the floor, eyes tightly shut as your body painfully shrunk back down into your human form.

You and Winston groaned as the two of you groggily took in your respective surroundings. Winston was still in your head, and you… were still in the hangar, but by the scaffolding?

“What… the hell…?”

You couldn’t remember anything past throwing the particle chamber. You looked up, and yep. The chamber was embedded in the wall, with something black and another thing that was bleeding. Huh. How the hell did you get here? Why weren’t you a gorilla anymore?

Hearing a jet powering up, your head snapped to the right, swearing when you saw Kevin and Jezebel inside one of the stealth jets that remained unscathed. You were instantly on your feet, sprinting to the other jet. Sluggishly stumbling into the pilot’s seat, you moved as fast as you could to go after them; but by the time you were in the air, it was too late. Their retro-reflective panels and radar cloaking were already operational. Now that you were looking into it, yours were on as well.

“I guess they turn on automatically for these things…”

Winston’s voice echoed in your head, confused, **_“Little One… I’m afraid I am not quite sure what’s happened.”_**

“I…”

You didn’t know either. You remember aiming for their heads, your eyes and mind screeching in agony, then… nothing. Suddenly, the feeling of electricity coursed through your brain, memories you do not remember making unfolding in front of your eyes.

 

~

 

_“R-Red… eyes…”_

 

_“You’re a monster!”_

 

**_“I’ve always known that I was a monster… all you did was make it worse.”_ **

 

~

 

“FUCK… w-what?!” Your hand smashed down on the jet controls, setting it to hover while the other flew to your temples. You clambered away from the cockpit, flopping onto the floor with a thud. Your teeth gritted together as the small glimpses etched themselves into our retinas, “W-Winston, what’s going on?!”

**_ “I… don’t know! I-I don’t know!” _ **

Past the pain, you could feel him flitting around nervously in your head, trying to find the problem. It seemed that he was just as confused as you, though not as debilitated.

You didn’t know how much time had passed, with you on the jet floor writhing in pain and him searching frantically for a solution. All the two of you knew was that it felt like hours; hours upon hours of feeling nothing but helpless. Helpless to the pain, and to the unknown.

By the time the pain finally decided to subside, you were on your hands and knees and drenched in sweat. Your arms shook, your chest heaving as you attempted to steady your breathing.

“Fucking hell, that hurt like a damn bitch!”

**_ “I’m not quite sure what happened to you there, Little One.” _ **

“Neither am I. All I know was that my brain feels like it’s been beaten to a pulp by Hulk then got struck by Thor’s lightning.”

**_ “Can you move?” _ **

You shoved yourself up onto your knees, grimacing, “Yeah, but I’m paying pretty badly for it.”

**_ “What… What happened to you?” _ **

You panned your head to the side, eyeing the jet’s flight controls.

“I got no idea about that, but…” You grunted as you heaved yourself back onto your feet, hissing through your teeth as you dragged your body to the cockpit, “…I _do_ have an idea on who does.”

Kevin and Jezebel.

**_ “Are you sure this is the best course of action?” _ **

“Better than no action at all. I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t _like_ the fact that I don’t know.”

**_ “Neither do I, but do you even have any idea on where they may be?” _ **

Still concentrating on the jet’s controls, you muttered distractedly, “Said something about the Alps, right?”

**_ “I’m afraid I am unfamiliar with that location...” _ **

“Don’t worry bud, I am,” having finally jumped into clothes, you hopped back into the pilot’s seat, readying for the trip, “First stop, the Alps.”

**_ “Is that truly wise?” _ **

Your hand stopped mid-air just as it was about to fly you to your destination, “Well, what else do you suggest we do?

**_ “The most logical, tactical choice for us to make would be to reunite with your team. With what you have told me, the assistance they can provide us with would be greatly advantageous. Perhaps we should go to them first, before deciding to go off on our own?” _ **

“Hm…”

Your tone was non-committal, but Winston was able to decipher the meaning behind the hum, nonetheless.

**_ “That incident in the hangar, it troubles you greatly. As does the episode you had here in this contraption. So much so that you worry for the harm you may cause when not in control.” _ **

“Yeah.”

You wanted more than anything to go back to them, but you didn’t want to hurt them either. He understood that. You let a hand hang limply between your legs, head titled down as you watched it repeatedly open and close.

It felt empty.

Oddly enough, the limb felt as if it was meant to have something in it. Being held down by it. You didn’t know what, but you had a feeling that knowing wouldn’t give a pleasant thought.

The image of your transformed self’s hand tightly gripping onto an unknown object blurred past your eyes, disappearing within the second it appeared. You could’ve sworn you saw desperate fingers clawing at your furry wrist.

It scared you.

You’d give anything to be able to return home, to get back to the tower, but-

**_ “You wish to return to your family, but you are also concerned for their safety… for your mate.” _ **

So much for mentally wallowing in self-pity.

“Dude!” You spazzed, hands flying away from the controls and narrowly missing driving you two and the jet into the ground, “I told you earlier, _slow your roll_! She ain’t my mate. More like… the one I had intended to court.”

**_ “Despite what you say, you cannot deny that you care for her as if she was.” _ **

“Sh. You, _SH_!” You sighed, clenching the hand between your legs into a fist whilst the other tiredly rubbed at your eyes, “Again, instead of wondering about my non-existent love life, how about we figure out what we’re going to do first? If you’re so against going solo, then we’ll have to think of a new plan quick. You know, before we get too far behind? With how terrified they looked, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were half-way across the world by now. They probably are, actually.”

He didn’t reply. You knew it was because he was thinking, silently weighing out the pros and cons of each decision carefully. After a moment of silence, you heard him sigh.

 **_ “I, too, wish you could reunite with them, but I cannot deny that I am also concerned about the strange phenomenon that occurred during our escape. Perhaps it  _ ** ** is _for the best that we remain separated? Just for now. Until we know for certain what exactly happened to us that caused such aggression. After what they made me do to my own family, I do not wish to risk a repeat.”_ **

“Hah, now you’re getting me!” You grinned, though it lacked mischievous the sparkle in your eyes, “Going solo?”

Winston sighed, **_“Fine, going solo.”_**

“Hey, don’t you go pouting on me. I don’t want us to do this alone, either. But I’d rather go at those bastards just us, ripping the heads off of more than just HYDRA…” your grip tightened around the jet controls, “I wouldn’t put it past those assholes to have put a trigger or something in our heads, one that’d go off and make us ballistic when we got to them.”

**_ “Yes… that was the purpose of Amalgamate, after all. To finally end the Avengers.” _ **

“Yeah…”

You spared the hidden hangar one last, quick, glance, wincing as you recalled brief scenes of their experiments.

 _'Yeesh_ , _at least one good thing came from this situation…’_

You watched as the fire from the destroyed planes spread over to where the jets had once been, fascination twinkling in your eyes.

_'This place’ll burn down long before the Avengers would even get here.’_

 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didja hate it? Didja like it?
> 
> Please do leave a comment below!
> 
> (Though I hope you don't strive to break this kid's heart...)
> 
> Yeaaaah, reader. At least it'll burn down long before they get there. Right?
> 
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

**Author's Note:**

> Didja hate it? Didja like it? 
> 
> Please do leave a comment below!
> 
> (Though I hope you don't strive to break this kid's heart...) 
> 
> Who knows, perhaps it will start a flow of words that will fill the emptiness left by my non-existent soul. Cringey angst, yaaaay. Perks of sleep deprivation. xP


End file.
